


Due West

by europa_report



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Drinking, Established Keith/Lance (Voltron), Family Bonding, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, Journey to Earth, Krolia's perspective on lance and Keith's relationship, Lance and Krolia bonding, M/M, Major Character Injury, Mentions of Krolia/Keith's Father, POV krolia, Post-Season/Series 06, Romance, Secret Relationship, stranded on a planet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-06
Updated: 2018-09-10
Packaged: 2019-06-22 18:50:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 27,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15588417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/europa_report/pseuds/europa_report
Summary: “Why did the blue lion choose you?”Lance’s eyebrows rose to his hairline. He was anexpressiveboy. He wiped the shock away quickly though, smiling easily as he took a small sip from the drink he held.“Dunno. We had a connection, I felt it the second I stepped into that cave. You know, the one Keith-““I know,” Krolia said tersely. “I found it.”-Flashbacks to Krolia's interactions with the blue paladin, as the pair fight for survival on a barren planet, stranded on their way to Earth





	1. left of south

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a little personal fun I'm having exploring the possibilities of Lance and Krolia's relationship, with a tonne of klance cause I'm weak for it... thanks for reading!
> 
> (and to anyone whose read my other really, hellishly long fic and is scared cause this doesn't have a chapter count yet- its short I promise! I swear on my life this is a short fic!)

They’d been going well, before the crash. They’d been making progress, crossing the many billions of miles that lay between them and Earth. At first, Krolia doubted they’d even make it through the first asteroid belt, thought they’d be shot down, run out of supplies, be refused refuge on a planet along the way. But they weren’t. They got lucky, they got smart, they were resilient. And every day was a challenge, and every day came with new surprises, but they stuck together, and they kept going. They’d made it so far, they were so close.

They should have made it further.

When Krolia pulled herself from the wreckage of the old rebel ship, she was amazed to find each limb still intact. It was a smoking heap, a pile of garbage now, reeking of burnt metal and fuel, never to take flight again. It had cushioned her landing well enough, kept her alive as they descended through the atmosphere, slammed into the hard, rocky surface of this planet. She’d come to with an insistent alarm informing her the hull was breached, with an ache in her head and blood dripping from a gash across her forehead. A little bloody, a little beaten, but alive.

The atmosphere was breathable; _thank the sky_ , else she’d be dead already. The sun here was hot and bright, the landscape a rigid, barren desert; but she could see mountains rising in the distance. Instead of red, baked earth, like that she’d once come to know on earth, the rock here was green. It varied in intensity, some light like a sprinkling of moss, others so dark they almost appeared black. The sky was blue, but darker than expected. Though clearly it was the middle of the day, it was a dark, Prussian blue, giving the sky depth and a sneaking, ominous feeling.

Krolia heaved herself up on top of the wreckage, shaking the slight ache out of one of her legs and squinting through the smoke. Nothing, all around. Nothing but the mountains far, far in the distance, and before then, the trail of smoke. It was thin, the ghost of a fire a good few miles away. Krolia knew exactly who it was.

Working quickly, she grabbed what she could from the wreckage; a few bottles of water, a med-kit, a blanket, some dried food. She loaded it into her pack, and left, feet leaving small indents in the pale green dust that blew over the rocks. She might be too late already, but that did not stop her hurrying. It was a race against time, against the dwindling trail.

Onwards; the ground was relatively flat, but morphed into small hills as she got closer, enough to disguise the crash from her. Panting, she scrambled over the top of one, stopping for a minute when she reached the top. She stared down at it, the scene before her, taking it in. Blackened metal, the huge shape of a lion sprawled across the green desert.

It was the red lion, in all its burning, mangled glory.

It was Lance.

 

\---

 

_3 Months Earlier_

On the first planet they stopped at, on their way back to Earth, Krolia had her first encounter with the blue paladin. That’s what everyone called him, the blue paladin; despite the fact he flew in the red lion, fought with the red bayard, took up her son’s place as the right arm of Voltron. Because he wore the blue armour, and that’s what they’d refer to him affectionately as; _Blue_. And Krolia wanted to understand.

She found him near the back of the hall they were gathered in, quietly nodding along to the story an alien was telling. Normally, he was meant to be very talkative. That’s what Keith had said, during their time together on that space whale, when he told her of his team. She hadn’t thought that long on any of them, because he spoke about them all. Hunk, and Pidge, and Allura, and Coran. Shiro she paid a little more attention to, because he had raised Keith, he’d kept her son safe. But Lance, that was his name, she’d let him slip like most of the others. Until Keith said that name in his sleep, _Lance_ , like it pained him a little, like it was something he missed. And from then on, she didn’t know what to think.

Lance wasn’t very talkative tonight. He was a good looking boy, by human and Galran standards, with a wide smile and warm eyes; but Krolia didn’t _know_ him. She made it her business to know things about everyone. The yellow paladin was kind, the food he made could be trusted, and Keith seemed almost… proud of him. The smallest, the green one, seemed feisty at first, but Krolia watched her, how she interacted with the others, and learnt she was no more than an affectionate child, doing her best to cope with this war. There was Shiro, whom she liked, and Allura, who she could respect and admire. Coran was friendly, if not a bit odd, but she found his company quite tolerable. But what was Lance, where did he fit? And the small, pained cry of his name that had left Keith as he slept, what did that mean? If it was this boy, this Lance, causing him to _hurt_ , then Krolia wanted to know.

She came to a standstill just behind him, watching him nod along to the alien’s story. He wasn’t as talkative today; perhaps he was tired. Krolia narrowed her eyes. The others seemed to like him; aliens flocked to him, always, like he was the boy everybody loved. And she didn’t trust him.

“Blue paladin.”

Lance’s reaction was instantaneous. He dropped the conversation with the alien, whipping around until his eyes settled on her and-

He beamed. A huge, happy smile.

“Krolia,” he said, and he sounded so _welcoming_. “Hey!”

Krolia did not smile back, didn’t even uncross her arms. He might have been tall, but she still overshadowed him; he was only human, after all.

“What’s up?”

He was still smiling, something soft, but tired, in his eyes. _Lance is the goofball, always telling jokes. We, uh… we kinda have a rivalry._ Keith had looked down when he’d said that, and there was something more, something he left unsaid. His tongue had twisted, a lock of hair, dark and unruly like his father’s, obscuring much of his expression. Who was Lance, to make him act like that?

“You, uh, enjoying the party?”

Oh, right, he was expecting her to respond. She’d have to do more than stare at him.

“Why did the blue lion choose you?”

Lance’s eyebrows rose to his hairline. He was an _expressive_ boy. He wiped the shock away quickly though, smiling easily as he took a small sip from the drink he held.

“Dunno. We had a connection, I felt it the second I stepped into that cave. You know, the one Keith-“

“I know,” Krolia said tersely. “I found it.”

“…Oh. Keith, he… hadn’t mentioned that yet,” Lance said, looking around in search of her son. “That’s pretty cool, I guess.”

 _Cool_. He said it so casually. Krolia swallowed the bitter memory that clawed its way towards her, of a planet she hadn’t seen in two decades, of a man there.

“So why did the lion choose _you_?”

Lance picked up on her tone now, she thought. His expression dropped a little, fingers tightening around the glass, lip curling as he tried to smile but ultimately failed.

“Why not Keith?” Krolia said, because she wanted to know.

The blue lion was a piece of her, of Keith, of their family, of… of a desert, and the shack out there. And him; _Akira_ , that’s how he’d introduced himself, when she first woke up, bandaged from head to toe in an unfamiliar room. _Akira, and I know how to shoot this here gun, in case you try anything funny_. Then he’d held out a glass of water, and nodded towards her few belongings in the corner on the room; _but you are safe. Don’t bother me, I won’t bother you. I won’t hurt you, you’re safe_.

“Because… Red chose Keith.”

Lance. Back to Lance. He didn’t look as happy as he had earlier. Krolia almost felt bad; sad wasn’t a good look on him.

“And Blue chose me. So… that’s just how it is.”

“And then you took the red lion.” Krolia narrowed her eyes. “Do you plan to take the black lion from him too?”

Lance scoffed, eyes straying to the crowd.

“Don’t think that’s quite how it works.”

Who was he _looking_ for?

“It had better not be,” Krolia grit out.

That got his attention. Lance frowned, considering her words for a second.

“It’s not,” he said. “Did… did Keith send you to talk to me?”

She stayed firm, almost considered not giving him an answer.

“No.”

“O…kay.”

Lance sighed, setting his drink down on the nearby windowsill and glancing around the room.

“Look, I gotta go. I think… Allura wanted to talk, or something. Nice chatting, and all. Enjoy-“

He flinched slightly when she caught his arm, nails digging just a little into his suit. There was a flash of fear in his eyes, before his expression hardened, effectively hiding that.

“I’m watching you, _blue_ paladin,” Krolia said, soft, but firm.

Lance shook his arm out of her hold, eyes lingering on her as he moved off into the crowd. What made him worthy of it, of blue? Krolia was going to find out.

-

They next planet they were invited to stay on was a quiet one. No party, no celebrations, and Krolia was thankful for it. They needed a break, all of them. It was tough going out there, just the five lions to get them all back to Earth. It was cramped, and the flight times were long; it was always a relief to find a planet to rest on.

Keith had passed out the night before, in the room this planet’s inhabitants had allotted to him. It was spacious, all the buildings were. They resided in a tall forest, and now, in the morning, soft, dappled light was spilling down from the canopy. It flooded through the loose shutters over the windows, splayed out on the white sheets where he slept, her son. He looked younger when he slept, so peaceful. She’d taken to watching him, like she’d done each night they spent in the void. Krolia sighed, resting her chin on the arm she’d propped against the mattress, legs folded neatly on the floor. Keith shifted slightly, close to waking. She reached out, brushing through his hair very lightly. How much had she missed, in all those years she’d spent away?

“Krolia?”

His voice was barley there, groggy and a little confused. She hummed, and Keith sighed, yanking the covers up to his chin but refusing to open his eyes.

“We talked about this,” he grumbled. “Watching me sleep is weird.”

“On the contrary. Many Galra mothers watch their young sleep, to ensure they are breathing. It’s-“

“I’m not a kid,” Keith mumbled, rolling over and taking the blanket with him.

Then, much softer.

“You missed that part.”

Krolia stilled, staring at his back, the steady rise and fall of his shoulders. She looked down, internalising the little stab of pain she felt at his words.

“Allura requested we meet up in half a varga. You need food before then.”

Keith sighed, giving in and sitting up. He rubbed sleep from his eyes, hiding a tired yawn. His hair looked much like it had as a baby, untamed and fluffy, sticking up at all odd angles before he could tame it down. Krolia caught herself smiling; she doubted he’d appreciate that sentiment. It was hard to know, what Keith wanted or did not want from her; she doubted he knew entirely himself.

Keith didn’t pay much attention to her as he meandered into the bathroom, grabbing his clothes as he went. They’d grown accustomed to each other, at least, he knew how unlikely it was for her to leave the room until they both left together. He emerged just a few minutes later, sleep still clinging to his being, but ready to face the day. Krolia took one look at his dripping wet hair and sighed.

“Galra hair does not respond well to Altean products. Or any, for that matter. You should just wet it, that is enough to keep it clean.”

Keith scoffed, towelling off his hair as he moved for his shoes by the door.

“Good luck getting Lance to believe I shouldn’t shampoo my hair.”

Keith froze, and Krolia too.

“Lance?” She said, trying to keep the edge out her voice. “Why would he care about that?”

“Uhh…”

Keith wasn’t meeting her eye; he also had a faint, pink dusting over his cheeks. His father got like that sometimes, but he refused to tell her why, what it meant.

“He’s into that stuff, y’know?”

“Your hair?”

“No-“ Keith slapped a hand over his eyes. “Just, hygiene, personal care and stuff, in general.”

Krolia hummed, suspicious, but satisfied enough to let it pass. The knock at the door caught both their attention. Keith moved towards it, but Krolia was faster. Hand on the knob, it swung inwards, putting her face to face with-

“K- oh. H… hey, Krolia.”

_Lance._

“It’s the blue paladin,” she said.

“Yes I can see that,” Keith muttered behind her.

Lance looked lively this morning, despite the fact he still wore his sleep clothes. His hair hadn’t been brushed, and he was cradling a mug of something warm in his hands. His expression fell a little when he saw it was Krolia at the door. She glared.

“Why are you here? We aren’t due to meet for another fifteen dobashes.”

“I…” Lance’s eyes flittered between her and the room over her shoulder, looking a little put out. “Just came… to say good morning.”

He blinked at her, once, twice, smiled a little to see if he could dislodge her displeased expression. He couldn’t.

“Good morning,” he said.

“Hey Lance,” Keith called.

He was seated on the bed, lacing up his boots.

“You can come in.”

Lance’s smile returned, and he made to move forward, but Krolia stopped him with a hand.

“What do you have?” She asked, looking pointedly at the mug in his hands.

“Oh. Oh! Tea, it’s for Keith.”

 _Tea. For Keith_. Why was he bringing Keith tea? Why was he even here? Ignoring the startled sound that tumbled from him, Krolia snatched the cup gingerly from his hands and brought it up to smell. Lance frowned, too uncertain to say anything. Krolia crinkled her nose, despite the fact that this tea, whatever it consisted of, smelt good. She took a sip, Lance growing more confused by the second.

“It’s safe for consumption,” she announced eventually.

“I’m not… gonna poison him,” Lance mumbled, but she was already walking towards Keith.

“Tea,” she said. “From the blue paladin.”

“His name is Lance,” is all Keith muttered as he pushed past, taking the mug from her hands and heading for the door. “Let’s go.”

Krolia frowned, watching Lance and Keith step out into the hall together. A few small, quiet words passed between them. Keith took a sip of the tea, smiled, said something. Lance smiled back. Then they were walking, and she was forced to hurry after them.

 

\---

 

_Present_

She heard him before she saw him, Lance. Krolia fell twice running down the hill, dropping her backpack as she darted toward the smoking remains of the red lion. Red had been torn apart by impact, twisted metal half buried in splintered rock. She found Lance still strapped to the pilot’s seat. It was a good thing he’d tied himself down, hadn’t been flung through the fractured front of the lion and spilt his skull on the hard earth. But half the cockpit was missing, and through the wreckage she could see the entire seat had shifted, and Lance…

He screamed again, a hoarse cry pulled from him involuntarily as a shock of electricity ran through him. He’d become impaled on a jagged strip of torn metal, burst from the wiring and threading the cables through him. The wound itself was bad; it went through him, split his armour like it was _nothing_ , wedged into the right of his stomach. And each time those exposed wires misfired, faulty from the crash, they sent a sharp shock of electricity through Lance. And he _screamed_.

Krolia had seen terrible things in her time, in all the battles she’d been through. Lance, like that, screaming his throat raw because every minute a fresh burst of electricity tore through his open wound- Krolia gasped, her own minor injured forgotten entirely as she scrambled up into the wreckage with him. Lance didn’t even notice her, delirious with pain. His arms hung limply by his sides, too weak to lift himself out of his predicament. How long had he been lying here, conscious? It had taken her over an hour to reach the site. Krolia felt _ill_.

Lance sobbed when the wires sparked, his body jolting weakly, trying to free itself. The surges weren’t deadly, not a fatal amount of electricity by any means. But pierced straight through his body… Normally, she’d never remove the metal embedded in him. That was the number one rule, don’t remove the puncture weapon from the wound. But she couldn’t stop those wires sparking, and she had a kit of advanced Altean supplies, and they had to _move._ And Lance would have to make it.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, and wound an arm around his chest.

He groaned, a sheen of sweat over his trembling body. Another bolt tore through him, and Lance’s voice gave out as he cried.

“I’m sorry, Lance,” she whispered. “I’m sorry.”

Krolia tightened her hold, and wrenched him up off the metal spike. She blocked the sounds he made, ignored them, lifted Lance off the mess of metal and wires soaked in his own blood, and carried him out that godforsaken cockpit.

When she set him down, he’d passed out. Krolia swallowed the lump in her throat, ripping his armour off and exposing the wound. Blood, everywhere; he was bleeding out rapidly. Her hands did not shake as she retrieved the medical kit; she’d trained enough to know how to control that. She cried though, she couldn’t stop that, the slow trickle of tears as she ripped open the kit and dug out the supplies she needed. Lance’s head lolled against the ground, tear marks streaked down his cheeks. He’d run out of those before she reached him.

Krolia unwrapped a syringe, glanced at the name, and jabbed in deep into his open wound. If human bodies responded well to Altean healing pods, they had better respond to this. She couldn’t do anything for his insides, the injection would have to sort that. His skin was slippery with blood, but she stapled it, stitched it, rolled him over painstakingly to fix the exit wound on his back. Altean ingenuity, that’s all she could rely on. Because if Lance’s body rejected the Altean potion in him, or rejected the tactile bandage she stuck over his stitches, he was dead. Stitches wouldn’t hold him together. As it was, it could already be to late.

Krolia sat back. He was still breathing, for now. She wiped some of the blood off him, tore open the emergency blanket and wrapped him tightly in it. The sun was going down here; the cycle must be shorter on this planet. Lance was breathing. _Lance was breathing_. Krolia sat down hard on the ground, head falling into her hands. Good things began like this, at crash sites in the desert. That’s what she told herself, watching over Lance’s motionless body, _good things_.


	2. over east

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for the lovely comments last chapter guys! I'm so happy so many of you enjoyed the Krolia-Lance dynamic <3
> 
> This does not follow the plot line of season 7 At All  
> (I loved 90% of that season, and fucking hated 10% with a burning passion)

_Present_

When Lance came to, some three hours later, Krolia made sure she was right there by him. That’s how long the day and night cycles seemed to last, three hours each, so the sun was gently rising in that dark, captivatingly blue sky. His eyes opened and he groaned weakly, wrapped tightly in the emergency blanket. The small fire was still crackling beside them, where they sheltered under Red’s massive paw. The temperature here dropped quickly at night.

“Lance,” she said, slowly, gently. “Do you know where you are?”

His eyes couldn’t focus as first, so she gently pet his hair as he awoke to their surroundings.

“Krolia?”

His voice was a weak rasp, skin too pale and eyes a little bloodshot.

“Yes. Can you see alright?”

Very slowly, Lance nodded. He squinted at the lightening streaks in the sky, listening to the fire crackle and pop, breathing more shallowly than normal. His eyes widened.

“’S Keith, where… where’s Keith,” he slurred.

“He’s not here- Lance, shh, it’s alright-“

He struggled, trying to sit up. He must have disturbed his stitches, because suddenly he gasped, collapsing, eyes rolling back as he fought for breath.

“Stay still, you need to stay still. Keith is fine. He didn’t crash.”

“Where…” Lance was panting, and he grimaced as his fingers fisted the blanket, eyes squeezed shut. “Where is he? Where are the others?”

Krolia waited a moment, waited for the tension to slip from his shoulders, for him to settle against the ground.

“I don’t know.”

Lance’s eyes fluttered open; he was crying.

“Do you remember what happened?”

A heavy sigh.

“No. We… we were gonna stop on that planet, weren’t we? T…”

“Trinion, yes.”

Lance was frowning; evidently he didn’t remember anymore.

“We got caught in a solar storm,” Krolia said. “With the others. We were separated. You tried to push Keith out of the path of a flare, and it struck you. Red’s controls are down, I imagine she stopped working before the crash.”

Lance was staring at her, and she could see the question burning away in his mind.

“I’m not sure where the others are, where Keith is. But they grouped up. I dove after you, and they grouped, and that was when we got separated. That storm spanned millions of miles, it could have dumped them anywhere, like us.”

Lance swallowed, fighting to keep his voice even.

“Where are we?”

Krolia sat back, gazing at the rising sun. It rose in the west here; at least, that’s what her compass was telling her.

“I thought I’d have no idea, but… these rocks, the landscape. I know this planet. The Galra use to mine here, ground up the earth, used it for building materials. _Beta-Thetzi_ , I think.”

She glanced down at Lance, his watery eyes and the pained expression he was trying so hard to hide. He was a brave boy; they needed him to be.

“Due west,” she said. “The direction of those mountains. I believe there is an abandoned outpost there. They’ll have ships, we can get off the planet.”

“But…”

“The other’s don’t know where we are, Lance. If we wait for them to find us…”

She looked pointedly at his stomach, and Lance grimaced.

“It’s bad, huh?”

“I’m surprised you’re alive,” she answered honestly.

Lance swallowed again, fingers playing nervously with the blanket.

“How’re we gonna get there? I… I don’t think I can walk.”

“I don’t know yet,” Krolia said. “I’m thinking.”

_Due west_. She glanced at the mountains, their hazy shapes on the horizon. That was a long way to walk, even in good shape. They should wait for the others, or she should leave Lance here and go alone, but he was bound to die if they did either of those things. The sun was rising above the mountains quickly, painting their glimmering peaks. Due west, like the blue lion had been from their little desert shack. _Due west_ ; she used to watch the sun set over his shoulder, Akira, back on Earth. Sunset always drew them back to that position, him sitting in the frame of the window, humming as he polished a gun or tinkered with a bit of her ship. And she’d sit back, to the east of him, just to watch the golden flares go up around him like an explosion of light and of life. They could make it, they could. It wasn’t the worst direction to head in.

 

-

 

_2 And A Half Months Earlier_

“I’m just saying, you put the biscuit, then the protein block, then the next biscuit, _then_ the food good, it tastes something like a s’more.”

“Hunk, there is no way in fresh hell the ordering of dehydrated biscuits is gonna make this taste like a s’more.”

“ _Try_ it.”

Pidge crinkled her nose “No.”

Krolia watched their argument with a hint of amusement, across the small table from the green and yellow paladins. They met up in the hull of the rebel ship they possessed during meal times, for meetings, and other such bonding activities. One lion was too small for so many people to crowd into, but the bulk of this carrier could accommodate them well enough.

“I think it tastes just like a s’more,” Romelle announced, biting into her share of their bland lunch.

“You don’t even know what a s’more is!” Pidge exclaimed.

She looked around desperately in search of help. Shiro held his hand up in surrender, avoiding the argument altogether, and Allura and Coran looked busy scouring over a map.

“Krolia! You had s’mores, on Earth, didn’t you?”

“I did not.”

She did. But she wasn’t going to mention that, preferring to avoid having to share in what they were eating just to prove a point. Pidge slummed in her chair, pouting. She sprung to life when the doors to the transition chamber slid open, and Lance and Keith walked in. They must’ve just transferred from their lions.

“Keith!”

Krolia almost chuckled at the way her son’s eyes widened, and he was dragged into the s’mores argument. Someone actually did chuckle then, and Krolia’s expression grew sour. The blue paladin took his seat beside her, Keith on his right. Technically Krolia sat at the head, with Allura, Romelle, and Hunk to her left, Shiro at the opposite head, and the others squished in on the right. Most were already engaged in conversation, so Lance turned to her.

“What’re they arguing about?”

“Earth edibles.”

Lance nodded like that just explained things, and went about lumping some of the plain array of food onto a plate for him and… And Krolia stared. Stared as he set the plate down in front of Keith, then went back to get one for himself. No one else seemed to notice, no one bat an eye. When Keith escaped the argument for a second and saw there was food waiting for him, all he did was mumble a quiet thanks, before slipping back into the conversation seamlessly. Was this to taunt her? Was this because of the tea? Was he now trying to prove just how much he was _not_ poisoning Keith? Or maybe he was still trying to poison Keith. Krolia glared at the plate there; she couldn’t exactly snatch it away, that would be too suspicious. Besides, it was unlikely it was _actually_ poisoned.

So she did nothing. Didn’t say anything, didn’t do anything, just let them eat. But when Lance looked across, she caught his eye and held it. _Don’t forget_ , she wanted to say. _I’m watching you._

-

It was harder than she thought, trying to figure Lance out. Just when Krolia thought she was on the trail to understanding, he’d do something that would throw her right off. Did he and Keith hate each other? Weren’t they rivals? They certainly bickered enough. At the breakfast table, over the comms as they flew, getting ready for a diplomatic meet. Lance always seemed to have some snide remark up his sleeve, waiting for the right moment to pull it out on Keith. Often it revolved around his hair. _Hey mullet, watch your step there mullet, couldn’t you hear through all that hair mullet?_ Her son did not have a mullet. Of that she was adamant.

They fought about fighting techniques, they fought about the time of day, they fought about the shade of Allura’s dress. It was insufferable; if Krolia were in Keith’s position she would have put Lance through a wall by now, but Keith… Keith didn’t seem bothered by it at all. Lance would start up with his antics, and Keith would play along. He’d make a jab right back, sometimes even smirk, dance around their argument in a way that was almost _playful_. Is that what it had come to? Lance had spent so much time antagonising him, fighting with him, that Keith was simply immune? If that’s the kind of boy he was, then Krolia felt more than mistrust.

Still, things carried on as usual. They had a close encounter with the Galra one day, managed to escape. They stopped off at another planet, introduced themselves to the locals, were granted permission to stay and rest for a day, to restock their supplies. When they couldn’t find a planet or abandoned moon, they’d all sleep within their lions, or in Krolia’s case, aboard the rebel ship. They’d bring the lions into a tight group, and usually elect someone to keep watch as they drifted through empty space. It was on one of those nights that Keith disappeared.

Krolia woke first, she usually did. The clock told her she’d been asleep for little more than six hours, though it was impossible to tell out here in the void. She gave the others time to wake, went around preparing the ship for breakfast, sorting through inventory. At what she deemed a reasonable hour, she donned her space suit and entered the airlock. Keith should be awake, she’d find him in the black lion. The jump across was short; Krolia used the boosters on her suit to steer herself towards Black, eyeing the other dormant lions in a circle around her.

The black lion opened it’s mouth to Krolia, as it always did, and she landed in the airlock neatly. Door closed, helmet off; she stepped into a cockpit, a welcome on the tip of her tongue. But he wasn’t there.

“Keith?”

Krolia stared, a bit of fear lodging in her throat. His mattress was there, laid out on the floor with a blanket thrown over it, but Keith was nowhere in sight. And it wasn’t as if these lions had any place to hide.

“Keith!”

Her pace was picking up, she couldn’t control it, couldn’t control the sudden panic that erupted within her. Because Keith wasn’t here, where he should be. Keith was gone.

“Keith!”

She looked around, knowing she’d find nothing, tossing the blanket aside as if he might’ve dissolved beneath the covers. Krolia felt heat building in her throat, suffocating her. _Faster, faster, faster_ ; she was breathing far too fast. _Be practical_ , her mind screamed. His suit was gone. _Where was he?_ He could’ve gone to the rebel ship somehow, crossed the same time she had, and… and somehow they’d missed each other. The wolf could have taken him. She would have thought Cosmo was still asleep with Hunk but perhaps not.

Krolia screwed her helmet back on, rushing for the airlock and throwing herself back out. When the airlock opened back on the carrier, she was yelling for him, scouring the empty room. He wasn’t there, he wasn’t _anywhere_. Krolia ran for the comms, flicked them on, and shouted.

“Get up! Keith is missing!”

Krolia’s head was spinning, a tightness in her chest and throat and _head. Where was he?_ The response came quickly.

“ _What do you mean?_ ”

Allura’s voice, from the green lion. Pidge had somehow made space in there for her and Romelle, dubbing it the girl’s hangout.

“Keith is gone,” Krolia repeated, hating how her voice sounded. “He’s not in his lion.”

“ _Shouldn’t he be on the carrier then?_ ”

_Shiro_ ; he was in the yellow lion with Hunk and Coran, given it had the most room in the cockpit to lay down beds.

“ _Is everything alright?_ ”

“He is missing,” Krolia snapped, though her voice stuttered a little too much to sound intimidating. “He-“

“ _I’m right here!_ ”

Krolia snapped her mouth shut, turning towards the consol. A little video had popped up, and on it, Keith. Krolia didn’t understand.

“ _Everyone calm down,_ ” Keith muttered. _“Jesus_.”

Krolia frowned, looking him over on the video feed, his sleepy face, his rumpled shirt, the faint red tinge over his cheeks. And behind him… he was in a lion; he wasn’t in his lion. Red. Keith was in Red.

“Why are you in-“

“ _Krolia!_ ” Keith yelled, just to silence her.

He was glaring, punching at the screen before him angrily. A little blip, and she saw the other lines go dead.

“You muted the others,” she noted.

“ _I muted the others_ ,” Keith muttered.

Her frown deepened. Keith buried his head in his hands for a second, sighing.

“Why are you in the red lion,” Krolia asked. “I… thought something had happened.”

She swallowed, trying to stay composed, to hide the fact she’d been falling apart not a minute ago. Keith huffed, pushing back a lock of hair. He looked grumpy and flustered all at the same time.

“ _Why do you care?_ ”

Krolia’s gaze darkened.

“Why are you in the red lion,” she bit out.

Because now anger was clouding fear, and suspicion was overcoming concern, and she wanted to know, precisely why, her son had vanished and reappeared right beside-

“ _I… wanted to talk to Lance_ ,” Keith said.

He ducked his head. His cheeks were pinker than before. When he looked up though, he was glaring.

“ _It’s not such a big deal_.”

But it was; oh, it was.

“Why aren’t you in your armour?”

Krolia swore she saw Keith’s cheeks turn a shade darker, but she paid no mind to that. If it hadn’t killed Akira, all that ridiculous pink, then he should be fine. She needed to know why he wasn’t dressed for vaccum travel, because it didn’t make sense. If Keith had gone to talk to Lance before she came to wake him, he’d need his armour on for the jump between the lions. He wasn’t in his armour however, he was in a sleep shirt, and she could just spy the edge of a blanket resting over his lap. Had he gone to the trouble of getting back out of his armour once there? Why? It was time for them to get up anyway. Keith just stared though, mouth agape.

“ _That… that isn’t any of your business, Krolia_ ,” he said.

“You should have alerted someone of your whereabouts, I had no idea where you were-“

Krolia stopped speaking. Stopped, because now there was not one, but two people in front of the camera.

“ _Was happening?_ ” Lance slurred, rubbing at his eyes as he sat up beside Keith.

He was bleary, tired, like he’d just woken up. He didn’t even have a shirt on.

“ _Oh my god_ ,” Keith whispered.

His eyes widened, whipping to look at the boy beside him. Lance barely blinked before he was being tackled to the ground, shoved out the way of the camera as Keith turned to glare at the screen with his skin a bright, beet coloured red.

“Lance!” Krolia snapped. “Why is my son in your lion? This is an entirely impractical hour of the morning to summon him.”

“ _Oh my god_ ,” she heard mumbled from out of sight, wherever Lance had landed on the floor. _“Oh my god._ ”

“ _Krolia just-“_ Keith cut himself off with an angry huff. “ _Just calm down! I’m here, we’re fine. Leave it alone!_ ”

“But-“

“ _No!_ ” Keith snapped. “ _I don’t want to hear it. I don’t have to explain myself to you. I’ll see you and the others on the carrier in a_ few minutes. _Don’t,_ don’t, _bring this up to them. Alright?_ ”

Krolia stared, dumbfounded. What on Earth was going on?

“ _Goodbye_ ,” Keith muttered, sounding fed up.

He switched off the feed. Krolia sat back, trying to piece it together. A sharp zap signalled Cosmo’s arrival on the carrier. Krolia stared at him, but, like the disloyal ally he was, he said nothing. Or maybe he was loyal, just not to her.

 

-

 

_Present_

She should have known then, Krolia realised much later. She should have known. But she didn’t. Earth customs, and human social cues, they escaped her notice sometimes. Confused her, like Galran things confused them. So she didn’t realise, and she didn’t question; not for a while at least.

Lance looked pale this morning. He wasn’t meant to look like that; he was a healthy boy, his skin had good, strong glow to it. Good teeth, good eye sight; he was a fine soldier, with a good fighting technique and a solid training regime. He was the person you could trust to get a job done; he was amiable, and dedicated, and strong. He could be intimidating if he had to, or he could placate people. A good mix, just what Voltron needed. The boy beside her now lacked many of those things.

Lance was half-conscious when she loaded him onto the make-do stretcher she’d managed to construct with rope from the pack and a thin strip of metal off of Red. He blinked at her through the haze over his eyes as she tucked the blanket in tightly around him and tied him to the metal sheet.

“Where’re we going?” He mumbled.

His skin was washed out, but feverish. _Shit_.

“To the mountains. Remember?”

“Oh. Oh yeah.”

He tried for a smile, and Krolia appreciated how even when injured, Lance was trying to cheer them up.

“You gonna carry me?”

“Yes.”

He hummed.

“Aren’t I a bit heavy?”

Krolia paused, raising an eyebrow.

“You are equivalent in weight to a ten year old Galran child.”

Lance frowned, absorbing that bit of information.

“Wow,” he said.

He seemed to be testing if his teeth were still there with his tongue. Maybe she’d given him a little too high of a dose of that Altean stuff.

“Keith must be _really_ small for a Galra.”

Krolia’s lip twitched, a ghost of a smile.

“He is.”

“Was his dad really short or something?”

_Definitely_ too high of a dose; Lance never brought up her past.

“No,” Krolia answered. “He was tall. He was a fire-fighter… that’s what they’re called on Earth, yes?”

“Yeah.”

Krolia sighed, tying off the last knot. That should hold him to the stretcher as they walked.

“Keith was born prematurely. I think… that’s why.”

Lance was staring at her, trying to decipher her expression through his drug-induced daze.

“Fun fact,” he said. 

Then frowned as if that definitely wasn’t what he meant to say. Krolia smiled.

“Fun fact,” she repeated. “I guess it… gave me just a little more time with him.”

Lance’s mouth opened in the shape on an o, eyes widening a little. He understood that tone of voice, the regret, and the longing.

“You have time with him now though,” he mumbled. “You have all the time.”

Krolia smiled, settling a hand in his hair.

“So do you,” she said.

Lance’s smile was light, carefree, but his eyes were already slipping shut. The drugs would ware off soon, then he’d be in terrible pain. But for now, he could rest, and sleep. She’d get them as far as she could before he woke.

Checking the knots one more time, Krolia stood and walked to the ropes at the front of the stretcher, next to where his head lay. She arranged them, a rope around her hips, two draped over her shoulder, and heaved the stretcher up so it sat at an angle. Good thing Lance really was just human. She began to walk, the back of the stretcher dragging along the ground, Lance lying along the tilt. They could make it like this, over the rocky ground and across the many miles. They could make it. They _would_ make it. _They would make it._

 

-

 

_2 Months Earlier_

The planet they stopped on this time was full of friendly faces. It must have been one Voltron had encountered before, and befriended, because when they arrived there were plenty of greetings and excited chatter, and the aliens were only too happy to have them stay. They’d spent plenty of time lately traversing the galaxy, so Allura announced they’d have some time off, time to breathe fresh air and eat actual food and soak in the planet they were on.

Despite having so much space to roam, the team, it appeared, liked staying close together. After some individual exploring during the day, they’d all come together on the beach as the sun began to set. Krolia sat beside Pidge, who was splayed out on the sand with a big book in front of her, inquisitive eyes scouring the page. Shiro lay on a spread out on a towel, maybe just resting, maybe asleep. They hadn’t managed to secure a new arm for him yet, but Allura promised it was coming. He didn’t seem to mind, just like he didn’t mind his new stark white hair; Krolia thought he was just happy to be there, _really_ there, after so long.

A shriek drew her attention to the shallow sea, and the group of five people playing in the waves. Allura had just tackled Lance into the water, and Coran was coming to his aid, diving at the princess so all three plunged beneath the waves. They came up spluttering and laughing, swimming over to where Hunk was splashing water at a reluctant Keith.

Keith hung back a little, a smile on his face but arms folded neatly across his chest as he toed the wet sand. He began mouthing off some choice threats as Lance advanced towards him, dripping wet arms opened as if in search of a hug. It wasn’t much used to resist; Keith was picked up, screaming and cursing as Lance stumbled into the water with him, and he was dumped unceremoniously into the foaming sea. Krolia’s eye twitched, unsure of whether this was a game or a threat. Keith came up laughing though, flipped Lance off and splashed water back at him. She’d let it slip for now, then.

As the sun sank lower, thy all crowded around the fire Shiro got going up on the beach. It was warm on this planet, pleasantly so, and the crash of ocean waves in the dark brought an aura of peace down around them. There were all smiling and nodding along to a story Coran was telling, chewing on the odd strips of dried fruit this planet had to offer. Krolia let her eyes linger on Keith, the shadows on his face wavering in the orange glow of the fire. A bout of laughter; Allura was shaking her head at whatever Coran was saying, and Keith shot a devilish smirk towards Lance. The gesture was returned, and Lance nudged him with his shoulder, before going back to listening to the story.

“So where’s everyone’s _second_ stop?” Pidge asked. “Yes I know we’re gonna go see our families first, Lance, but where second?”

They all thought on it for a minute; Hunk was the first to speak.

“I’m going straight to a sheep farm,” he announced.

There was a pause, before Pidge burst into laughter.

“A _sheep_ farm? What? Where did that even come from?”

“What?” Hunk defended. “It’s the least stressful place I could think of! After I see my family, you know, I just want somewhere quiet. Little sheep, nice open paddocks… I know it sounds funny, but I’m telling you, three weeks nursing baby lambs, and I won’t remember Zarkon at all.”

There were a few, good-natured chuckles, but eventually everyone was nodding in agreement.

“I’m going to New York City,” Pidge announced. “I wanna see as many human people as possible. Doing weird, humany things.”

“I think you’re gonna have to let Allura tag along for that,” Hunk snickered. “She’s dying for weird human things.”

“I wish to see one of your, er, space museums. Your flight centres. Your airports,” Coran finished. “So I may mock your inferior aircraft design.”

“Wow thank you, Coran,” said Lance.

Krolia squinted at him. His had was suspiciously close to Keith’s on the sand. _Poison_ , screamed her mind. _No_ , she corrected.

“What about you, Keith?”

It was Shiro who asked, with a kind smile.

“Oh.” Keith looked up; he wasn’t expecting to be asked. “I, um, I’ll probably go back to the shack. Y’know, see if its still there.”

The others all nodded, tossed a few smiles his way, all in all agreed in a good-natured way. But his words made Krolia stop.

“Isn’t that the first place you’ll go?” She blurted, cutting Romelle short.

All eyes were on her, then on Keith. He was looking back at her, knees tucked up to his chest, a funny sort of expression on his face.

“No,” he said softly, unsurely. “I…”

He cleared his throat, gaining back a little confidence.

“I’m actually going to Cuba, first.”

Silence descended on the group, but it wasn’t because of Keith, it was because of _her_. They were waiting for her reaction, Krolia realised.

“Why?” She said, the words barely leaving her lips.

Because why _Cuba_? Cuba was… it didn’t mean anything to them. She’d heard of it, sure, she’d spent a lot of time studying the Earth, but it was just like any other country, why Keith would want to go there _first_ was beyond her.

“He’s gonna come home with me.”

Oh. _Oh._ Of course. Lance was sitting up a little straighter, shooting Keith a quick smile before his gaze landed on Krolia. His expression was open, cordial, but there was something more to it. _Defensive_ , her mind provided. The blue paladin looked defensive.

“Cause, you know, it’d be lonely to just go back to the shack. So he’s… gonna come meet my family. Everyone’s gonna meet my family, eventually. Then we’ll go to the shack.”

“Lance’s family is the best family,” Hunk confirmed, but Krolia wasn’t listening.

Keith… wasn’t returning home. Keith was going with Lance. Lance had taken Keith from his home, swayed him, convinced him to come with him and what? Meet his family? Why couldn’t that be second, why wasn’t their own family first?

“But it’s your home,” Krolia said.

She tried to keep the disappointment out of her voice, but going off Keith’s expression, she failed.

“Yeah, well, there’s no one there,” Keith said softly. “It’s not what I want.”

And what did he want? _Lance_? She wouldn’t believe it.

“It’s cool,” said Lance. “My families gonna take good care of him. We’ll be able to pry him away after a week, or two-“

“You are going somewhere unfamiliar,” Krolia said, cutting Lance off. “To people you don’t know. Why?”

“I said why,” Keith replied, and there was an edge to his tone.

“What did you tell him?” Krolia accused suddenly, eyes snapping to Lance. “Convincing him to avoid his own home?

The others stayed very quiet, watching their conversation unfold nervously.

“He didn’t _convince_ me of anything,” Keith bit out.

“Why your home, blue paladin? Why should that be his priority-“

“I’m going to Cuba,” Keith snapped, and there was something final about the way he said it. “And you can’t change my mind.”

He held her gaze, unrelenting and unafraid. Lance looked uneasy beside him, but Keith didn’t flinch.

“Shiro,” he said, without breaking eye contact. “Where are you going to go?”

Shiro sighed.

“I’m taking Adam to Vegas,” he said. “We’re getting drunk, and getting married.”

And with that, the tension broke.

-

It was soon after, on the ground of a different planet, that things reached boiling point with Lance. Alzula was another familiar planet, with people who adored Voltron, who welcomed them with open arms. They were extremely low on supplies after a run in with the Galra, dented and battered. They’d need a few days to recollect themselves. Didn’t matter, the Alzulans were happy to help and give them refuge for a few days. It meant another party as well; people really liked throwing celebrations for Voltron.

Krolia ignored much of the preparation, electing instead to scout out the venue for potential threats. It was late in the afternoon when she stumbled across Lance and Keith, concealed in a quiet garden just outside the main hall. They were talking in heated whispers, arguing, and it wasn’t like one of their normal bickering sessions. No, they both looked genuinely upset. Krolia couldn’t hear what they were saying, not from this distance, but she didn’t dare get any closer. Keith looked angry, so did Lance, hands on hips as he stared the red paladin down. Keith snapped, and Lance scoffed, and Krolia grew furious at the rage that erupted across her son’s face. He shook his head, giving Lance one more dirty look before storming off.

Then nothing. Lance stood there, breathing hard, staring at the space Keith had disappeared into. He ground his teeth together anxiously, gaze falling to the floor. He looked upset. Krolia didn’t care.

She made her advance, stepping into the little garden and making straight for him. Lance startled a little when he spotted her, but he didn’t quite manage to wipe the solemn expression from his face.

“Krolia, hey…”

He trailed off, sighing. She would not be swayed by it, that miserable look.

“Blue paladin,” she said.

Lance ran a hand through his hair, tired. He couldn’t quite meet her eye.

“Look, I kinda gotta go, I’m… I’m a bit-“

“What were you talking with Keith about?”

Lance paused. His eyes flickered up, meeting hers. He frowned, lines criss-crossing his forehead, making him look older, more exhausted.

“That’s kinda private,” he said warily.

Krolia’s gaze hardened, rage bubbling beneath her skin. He’d upset Keith.

“Did you threaten him?”

Lance sighed, raising his head to the sky and letting go a long , long breath.

“I know you don’t like me,” he said. “I know that.”

Krolia said nothing. Lance wrung his fingers together, looking at her sadly.

“But Keith’s my best friend. I’m not… whatever you think, if you think I hurt him, or upset him, I don’t. I just want him to be happy, Krolia, like you do.”

Lance looked to her then, for what, she didn’t know. Approval? He wouldn’t find it.

“I don’t trust you,” she said plainly. “And I don’t trust the lion’s choice.”

Lance flinched, actually flinched, like her words had shocked him.

“If this is about-“

“I found the blue lion,” Krolia said. “When I came to Earth, it called to me. I kept it safe, I… and Keith’s father. That lion has been connected to my family for decades. When Keith was born, the very first place I took him was to that cave.”

Lance was watching her, hurt in his eyes, his lips tightly sealed.

“I protected that lion within an inch of my life,” she said. “I risked my families life, I left them, to keep it safe.”

A step forward; Lance stood his ground, but lowered his head.

“That lion called to my son,” Krolia continued. “Drew him back into the desert. He was connected to it in a way no one else was, and then you showed up.”

“You wanted Keith to pilot Blue,” Lance said, small and resigned.

“I don’t know what I wanted,” Krolia said. “But it wasn’t you.”

A little gasp, inaudible almost. Lance’s eyes were fixed on the floor, his bottom lip trembling.

“Lance-“

Both their heads snapped up. Keith was there, at the entrance to the garden. He froze when he spotted them, hand braced against the pillar.

“Krolia,” he said.

Lance turned his head, trying to hide his watery eyes, but nothing escaped Keith. His hands formed fists, and those violent, _vibrant_ eyes were turned on Krolia.

“What did you do?” He asked.

His voice was like ice.

“What did you _do_?”

Krolia stood her group, even as he marched towards them. Lance was bouncing nervously on the balls on his feet, biting his lip to stop its trembling.

“Lance-“

“I gotta go,” Lance said, ducking away from them both.

He sounded so, so tired.

“I’m done.”

Keith stared, looking between him and Krolia with a mix of hurt and confusion.

“I’m just done.”

With a shake of his head, Lance left, brushing past Keith without so much as a word. Krolia sighed, secretly glad to see him go. Then Keith was in front of her, and he had murder written in those eyes.

“Keith-“

“I don’t want to hear it,” he spat.

He looked on the verge of saying more, but after a moment, his expression crumbled.

“Just leave us alone,” he said. “Leave me alone.”

-

The rest of the evening, in Krolia’s opinion, went down as well as a cactus might, were one trying to swallow it. Lance and Keith were not on speaking terms, and she hadn’t realised the type of rift that would create until now.

“I think you’ve had enough of those.”

Keith turned to her, two shots of a mysterious looking liquid in each hand, one already empty.

“Fuck you,” he said, and downed the other shot.

Krolia sighed.

“You’re going to be sick.”

“Do I-“

Keith yelped, catching himself quickly against the table as he began to topple. He raised a finger, taking a minute to recollect his thoughts.

“Do I look like a child,” he slurred.

He was drunk. Her son was drunk off his face. A finger was pressed rudely against her nose.

“No,” said Keith. “’M not a child.”

He huffed, tossing a bit of fringe back and reaching clumsily for another drink off the table. The music was loud around them, Alzulans left, right and centre. Krolia went to grab the drink from his hands, but Keith snatched it away.

“Nu-uh,” he said. “’M the black paladin. And I… ‘n I want this. I want this. ‘S mine. Not for you!”

He leant closer to her, and she could smell the alcohol on him. He was going to have a miserable morning tomorrow.

“Not for you,” Keith mumbled, punctuating each word.

She had a distinct feeling he wasn’t talking about the drink. With that, he spun away from her, raising the glass in salute as he sauntered off tipsily into the crowd. Krolia pinched her brow, wondering where she went wrong. Probably started with abandoning him. In any case, his foul mood seemed to have been brought about by Lance. After all, he’d been upset after their argument.

The paladin in question hadn’t touched any of the drinks that evening. He was slouched against a wall, a dejected look about him. Krolia made a point of a avoiding him. She didn’t want to talk to the other aliens, didn’t want to be here at all. Eventually she found a quiet alcove to sit in, staring blankly at the wall as the thrum of music reached her ears from outside. Akira had been nice like that, they didn’t need to be talking; just existing there, in each other’s presence, it was good enough.

A group of aliens walked past her hide out, chatting loudly, and Krolia sighed, sinking against the wall. It hurt in a way she couldn’t put into words, what Keith had said about their home, the fact it wasn’t his priority. Had it really become that desolate, that he had nothing there to return to? It had been the only home Krolia had really known. It bled safety, and warmth. She’d thought once, young and naively, she’d grow old there. She’d spend her whole life there, with the man she loved, raising their son. She’d watch over the blue lion and maintain the peace, and everyday would pass as sugar sweet and golden as the last. She’d wake before the dawn, watch it rise over the barren hills. She’d cradle Keith without ever worrying she might lose him. Akira would play her music from Earth, and they’d fall more in love everyday, and every evening at sunset they’d migrate to those same spots. _Due west_. He’d sit by the windowsill and she’d watch him, and he was more beautiful than the sun that sank behind him, setting his hair alight.

Krolia shook her head, dispersing the thoughts. She was an idiot. That place wasn’t a home anymore, at least not to Keith. And there was no one for her on Earth. Keith’s memories had shown her that well enough. Akira was gone, and she had lost the greatest, most significant piece of love she had ever held. Krolia curled up in the alcove, head in hands, trying to drown out the noise of the party as an unwelcomed wave of grief surged over her. They were meant to grow old. They were meant to cherish every remaining day of their lives, together. Now not even her son belonged to that place in the desert. And it was all-

Krolia’s head shot up as someone stumbled into the alcove. _Because of him_. Lance was a mess, his usually impeccable hair pointing in every direction from him anxiously tugging at the strands. Krolia glared at him, and the second he spotted her, his frantic expression vanished, replaced by resentment and exhaustion. He turned to go, then stopped, shaking his head angrily.

“Look. Have you just- have you seen Keith?”

Krolia looked him over, well aware she didn’t look up to scratch either.

“No,” she said dryly.

“Okay.”

Lance sounded fed-up, but his actions told a different story. Lance looked worried. With a shake of his head, he ducked out the alcove to continue on with his search. Krolia resisted growling at the empty air once he vanished, pouting and slouching against the wall. The _blue_ paladin, the one who took their lion, then her son, stole the heart from her home, from her desert. What a fine choice. She scoffed pitifully, glaring at her boots. His relentless charm, his stupid, easy going ideals, his pointless jokes, he almost reminded her of-

Krolia stopped, scolding herself mentally. She wanted nothing to do with that boy, wanted him to stop encroaching on their lives, wanted… she wanted Keith to be happy. And surely, _surely_ , Lance was a hindrance. Yet there he was, out searching for her drunk and disorderly son, and here she was. Just… sulking. She swallowed. Krolia groaned, pushing herself up. Time to find Keith then, prove she could do a better job than Lance.

The lights were brighter outside the alcove, and she squinted at them angrily. She made for the gardens, partially because they were quiet, a good hiding place, but mostly to escape the glare of the hall and its pulsing music. It was nice out here, warm enough, sparsely lit with lanterns those wove through the thick hedges that created segregated little gardens. Krolia appreciated the peace, weaving through the maze in search of her son. He better not have wondered to far, not given the state he was in.

It only took a few minutes of searching to find him. Krolia heard it first, _crying_. Her blood ran cold, a shiver shooting up her spine. That was Keith crying, she knew, she didn’t even question it. Tearing through the hedges, she cursed herself for letting him wander off in the first place. He could be hurt, he could be lost; he was drunk for goodness sake, who knew what mess he’d gotten himself into. Krolia followed the trail, concern mounting as she rounded the corner and then-

She stopped dead. Because it was _him_. She’d been beat, because kneeling on the ground with Keith, keeping him propped up as he cried his eyes out, was the blue paladin. _Lance_. And Keith… Keith was crying, _bitterly_. Keith was crying because of him. Krolia saw red. A snarl built in her throat, a second away from storming over and ripping that boy’s throat out- but she stopped. Because the arm Keith had slung over Lance’s shoulders wasn’t to push him away, it was to cling to him. They weren’t fighting, or yelling; Keith was crying, and Lance was speaking to him in gentle, gentle whispers Krolia could barely hear. Excuse her Altean, but what the quiznak?

She froze, rooted to the spot, just watching them. Keith was slumped against a little garden wall, still largely drunk going off the flush on his cheeks, face all screwed up miserably. His eyes were blotchy from crying, and he didn’t appear to be stopping. Lance was knelt there beside him, the hand on Keith’s waist to keep him from falling over, holding Keith’s other hand to his cheek as he spoke calmly to him. Keith shook his head violently, more tears spilling down his cheeks as he began to whimper. And then he spoke, and Krolia felt her body seize up.

“Don’t… don’t go,” Keith mumbled, voice a mess from the alcohol and the crying. “Don’t want you to go.”

Lance shook his head, but it wasn’t enough to placate him.

“Please, please Lance.”

Keith grimaced, heaving in air as he began to cry harder.

“Don’t g-go-“

“Hey, hey, Keith, I’m not, it’s alright.”

Lance was speaking louder now, she could hear him as he tried to calm the red paladin down. Keith’s hand flailed, and he caught it, pressing it against his heart.

“People keep-“ a hiccup of a sob. “Keep leaving. Don’t leave Lance, please.”

Keith might’ve been drunk, but this hadn’t come out’ve nowhere. Krolia shrunk back, hiding herself in the shadow of the hedge. He wasn’t hurting because of Lance, not at all. He was hurting because of _her_.

“Keith, listen- no, listen to me.”

Lance kept his head, speaking gently but reasonably.

“’M not going,” he said, soft. “Not going anywhere with you, yeah?”

Keith didn’t reply, just cried, trying to hide his teary face in Lance’s shoulder.

“Hey…”

Lance shifted awkwardly, sitting down against the wall and tugging Keith into his lap. Keith curled in on himself, sniffling into his shirt. Lance cupped his head, ran a hand through his hair in a way Krolia _knew_ calmed him.

“It’s okay, Keith,” he said, wrapping an arm around the miserable paladin. “We’re gonna get to Earth, we’re gonna… we’re gonna get there together. And I’m not leaving you, Keith. We’ll get through it together, yeah. We always do. And we’re going to now.”

Keith sniffled, small sobs shaking his body.

“Please don’t,” he mumbled. “Please don’t, please don’t, please don’t…”

His words looked like they hurt Lance. The blue paladin tilted his chin up so Keith was forced to look at him, eyes all puffy and red.

“Keith,” he said, and smiled.

It was so soft. He said something, but it was just a whisper, something Krolia didn’t catch. He held up his pinky and hooked it around Keith’s. Whatever that action was, it meant something to them, because suddenly there were fresh tears spilling down Keith’s cheeks, and he was looking at Lance through it all, bewildered. Krolia didn’t get even a minute to process, to think, because then Keith was curling his arm around Lance’s neck and pulling him down to-

To kiss him.

Krolia stared for a minute as her world flipped itself over and around a few hundred times, too shocked to move. Keith just kissed Lance. And it wasn’t a first kiss. It wasn’t something new, didn’t come as a surprise to either of them. Keith melted against him, his cheeks wet with tears, a small furrow in his brows as he kissed Lance, and Lance kissed him back. Lance cupped his neck, hugging him, and Keith’s hand curled into his side. Krolia shouldn’t be watching them, shouldn’t have been listening to their conversation, because this was private. Because Lance and Keith… were together.

“You are so drunk.”

Lance had pulled back, was shaking his head fondly. Keith blinked up at him, tears leaking slowly from his eyes but he’d… he’d calmed down. Krolia knew he was going to kiss Lance again, so she left. She snuck away into the darkness, to revaluate, to ponder over every one of her incorrect assumptions.


	3. below the north

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for so much lovely feedback! I really really appreciate it, its like so much good soup I don't know what to do with it
> 
> Time for some Bonding

_Present_

When Lance came to, the sky had switched from day, to night, to day again. He stared up at it, the milky dawn, his eyes wandering the vast, empty heavens. Krolia kept glancing at him over her shoulder, to check he was still there; he was awfully quiet. The medication had worn off, because the dazed, carefree look about him was gone, replaced by a heavy, solemn silence. She knew he was in pain; he hadn’t asked for more medication, probably knew they had to conserve it, so was trying to hide how much he was hurting. But the quiet gasps and hitches in his breath whenever they crossed a rough patch of ground told her well enough. Lance was in agony.

There was a delicate frown on his face; he was thinking about something, and not anything pleasant. Small shivers ran through his body, and he was still too pale, an offish colour to him that Krolia didn’t like. Still, they walked on in silence, the stretcher dragging over the rough ground and her harsh breathing to disturb the silence. Lance was relatively light, given how much bigger she was than him, but dragging him, and their meagre supplies for hours on end drained her.

“I’m sorry that…”

The rest of Lance’s words faded out. She couldn’t hear him over the scrape of the stretcher over the rock. Krolia came to a stop, panting a little, looking at him over her shoulder.

“Pardon?”

Lance sighed. He was still gazing at the sky, lost in it, as if part of him existed somewhere far off.

“I’m sorry about… about Cuba,” he said softly. “I know… you wanted Keith to go to the shack. And I… think it’s important he goes there.”

Another sigh.

“But not first. I asked him to come to Cuba before we were even, you know, together. I didn’t… I didn’t want him returning to nothing. I wanted people to be there for him, to welcome him back to Earth and… and make him feel wanted.”

A pause, and Lance’s brow furrowed.

“Because he is.”

Krolia set the stretcher down for a second, stretching out her arms as she gazed up at the cloudless sky alongside Lance.

“I understand.”

Lance blinked at her, and she wished she could wipe that frown from his face. It wasn’t meant to be there, on someone so young.

“You can be angry-“

“I’m not angry,” Krolia said with a light chuckle.

She sat down on the rock, stretching out her legs as she mulled over his words.

“I made a lot of wrong assumptions. I assumed… you were trying to beat Keith, somehow. It felt like an attack, like you were picking apart our family to… I don’t know. You aren’t like that, of course you aren’t, I thought wrong about so many things.”

Her words must’ve meant a lot to Lance, because his expression had lightened a fraction.

“The only memories I have of that desert are happy. Bittersweet now, I suppose. I overlooked what… what has become of it. With… with Akira gone, with all the time Keith spent alone, it’s no wonder-“

She stopped, biting her lip.

“I’m glad he’s going to your family, Lance. He needs a family like that.”

“He needs you too, you know.”

Krolia shook her head sadly.

“No, I need him. He learnt to live without me a long time ago.”

Lance was silent for a while, frowning at the sky. Just as Krolia was about to stand, he opened his mouth again.

“He still wants you though.”

She stopped, looking down at the boy in blue, the hopeful little twinkle in his bloodshot eyes.

“Maybe he… maybe Keith does know how to live without people. But that doesn’t mean you can’t make it better. No matter how long, Krolia, no matter how much you missed, coming back to someone, and, and trying again… we all want that.”

Krolia didn’t reply, didn’t know what to say. But she liked his words, liked how easily they came from him, that caring for others was so natural to him. She offered him a smile, and lifted the flask of water for him to drink, and then they began to walk again.

She needed Keith, that was undeniable. Whether Keith needed her, that was questionable. But Keith needed Lance. He needed Lance a lot. So if that was her purpose, if that was how she helped him, by bringing this boy back, she’d do it. She’d do it knowing Lance deserved life.

 

-

 

_1 And A Half Months Earlier_

Krolia didn’t mention the kiss, not to Lance or Keith, not to anyone. She didn’t mention any of the things she subsequently noticed; their hands entwined beneath the table, the small, subtle looks they shared as they scoured over a map, the way Keith adjusted Lance to be more comfortable as he fell asleep against his shoulder. She didn’t know why they hid it from the team; or maybe the team knew, and they were just hiding it from her. Krolia needed time to think.

She did so in the corner of cabin they were camped in, with Cosmo sprawled across her legs. This planet was largely abandoned, but seemed peaceful. They found the cabin in the forest empty, so used it to rest for a day or two, breathe the fresh air. Outside, Krolia could hear some of the others chatting, while in here Coran sat reading a book while Hunk stirred something on the stove. It was nice, a good atmosphere for thinking.

Thinking about Lance. Discovering he was in a relationship with her son wasn’t going to make her instantly like or trust him. If anything, it should make her more suspicious. But they way he’d handled Keith, comforted and calmed him… she couldn’t do that. She’d tried, but she didn’t know how to do it right. She loved her son, cared about him, but Lance had a way of showing it that she couldn’t. And Keith needed that.

Then again, if Krolia had learnt anything in her time, it was that there was always more to every situation. So maybe Lance and Keith were… together. In love, she didn’t know, but together. Maybe Lance made him happy, maybe Lance was good for him, but maybe, said a small part of her brain, Keith was to Lance like all the other pieces were. The blue lion, their home… maybe Keith was something to be won, another thing Lance could tick of his list, another conquest. Until Krolia knew for absolute certain, she refused to trust that boy.

The blue paladin, in his blue armour. Yet he held the red bayard, and flew the red lion, and had Keith, the red paladin, wrapped around his finger. He’d taken them, all of them, from a red desert, under a red hot sun. Yet he wore blue. Because that was his colour, that was _him_ , and the rest were mere collectibles.

“You alright there, Krolia? Looks like you’re about to jump ship and take on a pack of furious-“

“I’m fine, Coran,” Krolia answered, before the man could get any further.

She did make the effort to relax her shoulders and stop scratching lines into the table with her claws. Coran paused, serious for a moment.

“Are you sure?”

She sighed. Coran was a decent person, one of the few she didn’t mind speaking with.

“The blue paladin,” she began. “What is your opinion of him? Your… honest opinion.”

Coran paused, surprised by the question.

“Lance? Well, he’s… he’s the finest paladin I know. The kindest, certainly. Did you know he saved my life?”

“No,” Krolia said slowly. “I didn’t.”

“Hm. Don’t tell any of the others, but-“ Coran leaned in close, whispering in a voice far to loud to really be considered a whisper- “I reckon he’s my favourite.”

“That’s not a secret, Coran,” Hunk called over his shoulder, from where he stood by the stove.

He chuckled when they both startled, shaking his head before carrying basket of peeled vegetables towards the door, leaving them alone.

“Why do you ask?” Coran said.

“No reason.”

And there was no reason, really. It made no difference if Coran trusted Lance, because Keith trusted Lance, so maybe he was just good at fooling-

“ _KEITH!_ ”

Krolia jumped, as did Coran, at the outburst of voices from outside. Screaming, loud, harsh cries of Keith’s name, of her son’s name. The door to the cabin burst open and Lance strode in without sparing them a glance. He wasn’t in armour, no one was, but he took three strides towards the table holding their supplies, grabbed his bayard, and turned.

“Something took Keith!”

And he ran. Krolia and Coran sat there for a second, stunned, until the footfall of other paladins came racing up the steps Lance had disappeared down.

“Get up!” Pidge was yelling. “Something took Keith, come on!”

Her and Hunk looked frantic, second only to Shiro, who along with Allura was helping a limping Romelle.

“Coran,” he said. “It nicked her, help!”

Coran was on his feet, helping lower the sniffling Altean into a chair. Krolia took one look at her leg, the thick gash oozing blood, before she was running too. Keith had left his Marmoran dagger on the table; she grabbed it. Pidge and Hunk were already outside, running, but she easily caught up.

“What took him?”

“I don’t know!” Pidge yelled.

“It, i-it…” Hunk trailed off, stumbling over his own feet.

There was a path through the trees, made by something trundling through, splintered branches and crushed leaves scattered in its wake.

“Whatever made that,” he finished. “It was just- just huge, and it wasn’t there, then the next second… he was protecting Romelle, I-“

Krolia had heard enough. She was faster than the paladins by a long way, and their cries echoed in her ears as she took off into the bushes. Lance had a head start on her, and she could only hope it was enough. Whatever had come through here was big, big enough to shatter the trees as it tore through, to leave disaster in its wake. Krolia sprinted through the undergrowth, calling out to Keith, but hearing only the distant cries of the others in return. The forest was vast, and dark; why hadn’t they been more cautious?

“Keith!”

There was a yell up ahead, but she couldn’t even tell who it was. Air whistled past her ears as she ran, knife in hand, ready to kill. The trees were clearing, opening out, a clearing perhaps? Krolia stumbled across the ground, the trail still very clear to follow. They were heading up an incline, splintered bark marking the way.

“KEITH!”

That was Lance. He was close. Krolia pushed herself, forcing a maintained sprint up the hill, pushing aside the last bushes and… and emerging at the top of the cliff, into an open field, when the ground dropped suddenly down, vast mountains and a lake beyond. And standing there, near the edge, was a beast like Krolia had never seen. Like a bear, somewhat, but larger. Instead of fur, it had thin strips of hair over a scaly body, and a hunched back that bristled as it growled. Pinned beneath a massive paw, barely clinging to consciousness, Krolia spotted Keith. The bear grunted, baring rows of sharp teeth, but its attention wasn’t on Krolia. No, not at all; four pairs of beady eyes stared at the boy before it, at Lance, his bayard drawn and forming a sword. He was panting, shoulders squared and confident despite the fact he wore not a scrap of armour. That thing would cut him clean in half.

Krolia stumbled forward, a warning on the tip of her tongue. It was dizzying, the height of this cliff; beyond, the lake stretched for miles, then met the mountains bearing forests like this all around. The bear let out a bellow, its claw digging into Keith’s side and drawing a pained cry from the boy. Lance raised the sword, a snarl on his lips, stepping towards the bear. The idiot, was he actually trying to fight it? Krolia drew her knife. Better two against one. The second she stepped forward though, the bear appeared to change its mind.

A gasp tore out of Keith as those claws sunk into his sides, and he was hefted right off the ground by it. A scream lodged in Krolia’s throat, silenced by the thick, scaly sheets suddenly unfolding from the bear’s back. Wings, she realised numbly. They were wings.

“NO!”

Lance lunged forward, running, but he wasn’t going to make it. With a grunt, the bear launched itself into the air, over the edge of the cliff where it fell for a few moments before swooping into the air with powerful wing beats. Krolia did scream, then, watching Keith’s limp body dangling from its claws as the creature flew steadily away from them. It was already too far, too far to jump, impossible to get to without their jetpacks-

A shot tore past her, racing through the air before connecting with the bear. Krolia spun around just as Lance fired off another one, and the creature howled as the shot met its mark. Krolia watched stunned, as all of Lance’s shots landed critical blows to the animal, and Keith began to slip from its claws. She realised the consequence a second too late.

“Lance,” she said. “No, wait!”

Her lips had just formed the word when the final shot struck the bear right between its wing and shoulder. It howled, twisting in the air, and Keith slid from its grip. He slid, and he fell. Krolia gasped, watching her son’s lifeless body plummet through the air towards the body of water below. He was too high up, he wasn’t even conscious, he… that fall was going to kill him. She wanted to scream, wanted to throw herself over the cliff with him, but it was over too fast. Keith fell far, from too high up, and Krolia watched in horror as the water closed around him as he struck the ground.

Her knees hit the grass at the edge of the cliff, fingers digging into the rough dirt there, waiting. For what? For him to remerge from the water? She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t make a sound; her mouth opened but nothing came out. The water was settling, the ripples dissipating. A jacket hit the dirt beside her, then a gun. Before Krolia could even react, Lance was taking a sprint at the cliff, and throwing himself over the ledge. He fell, down, down, controlled. He dived, without a second thought, and seconds later Krolia watched the dark waters swallow him up with just a small splash.

A second passed, another. Neither re-emerged. The cliff was steep, vertical almost, but Krolia didn’t care. She’d fall if she had to. Only half aware of what she was even doing, she swung her legs over the drop and began to climb. The rock was rough, and in the gaps, the earth crumpled. She grappled for old roots to help her on her way down, climbing carelessly, quickly, desperate to get there. She diverted from the patch of dark water Lance had dived into, heading for the shallows, for the beach. She lost her footing near the bottom, fell the final few metres and landed on the pebbled shore of the lake with a painful thud.

There was still no movement in the water. Krolia stumbled towards it, slipping on the smooth pebbles, crying out to them, to Keith. It soaked through her boots as she waded in, eyes raking the dark substance.

“Come on,” she whispered. “Please, _please_.”

A sudden splash, a gasp. Lance shot through the surface, a body piled slackly over his shoulder. Krolia nearly cried, wading in deeper, waving her arm at him. Lance adjusted Keith, pulling him through the water behind him as he swam for shore. He was still gasping for air when he dragging Keith through the shallows, up onto the beach. Water ran in rivets down their skin, from damp hair and sodden clothes, mingling with the blood that came off Keith. The latter was unconscious, his body still and lifeless. Was he breathing?

Lance fell to his knees, Krolia beside him, tilting Keith onto his side. He was arranging him in some odd fashion, but he seemed to know what he was doing, even through his chest heaved and shivers ran through his body. Lance grimaced when no movement came from Keith, tapping his face lightly, flipping him onto his back to begin compressions-

Krolia startled as Keith came too violently, hacking up water from his lungs. Lance helped him into a better position, holding him steady as Keith coughed and coughed, curling in on himself as he expelled the water. Eventually he stopped, drawing ragged breaths and wheezing slightly. He slumped back, gasping, and looked up at the sky through his soggy fringe, trembling limbs keeping him from moving. Lance was crying. He knelt by Keith’s head, trying to support it, to keep him from lying too uncomfortably on the pebbles. Keith’s breathing grew more stuttered as he began to cry too, reaching weakly for Lance. And maybe they forget she was there, or maybe the thrill of being alive meant suddenly they didn’t care, because between their shaky breaths and clumsy tears, Lance leant down and kissed Keith.

He kissed him tenderly, their tears mingling on sodden cheeks as Lance began weaving his fingers through Keith’s hair, pushing it back from his face so he could see properly. They still needed to breath, they were both still recovering, so Lance pulled back and kissed his cheeks, crying softly into his skin as he kept stroking back Keith’s wet hair. Keith was too weak too move, but he smiled meekly up at Lance, accepting the soft little kisses that were placed on his nose, his eyelids, his lips. For all of five minutes, they were a pile of soggy, love-struck, paladin.

Krolia let them be. She sat back, desperate to take Keith in her arms, but aware of how much they meant to each other in that moment. Her mind drifted briefly to Earth, to the past, the first time Akira had gotten seriously hurt searching for the lions. He fell down a ravine, shattered his leg. By the time she retrieved him an hour later, they were both sweaty and shaky, and the laughter and tears they shared as they just held each other at the head of a steep descent could describe every emotion.

Eventually though, she had to move foreword. Keith was still bleeding, and they needed to get the hell out of there. She crouched beside them, noting Lance had tied Keith’s hair back properly now, and ran a hand over her son’s cheek. He looked at her curiously, questioningly. Lance couldn’t tear his eyes away from Keith, clinging to his hand as if it were the thing that had kept them afloat, not him.

“Come,” said Krolia. “Let’s get him back to the others.”

 

-

 

_Present_

“How long did you spend there, on Earth?”

They’d stopped for a night, at least, the short three hours of darkness. Krolia had built a fire, lay Lance down right beside it so he could feel the heat radiating off. She fed him another spoonful of their rations before answering.

“Nearly three years.”

Lance hummed.

“That’s not very long.”

“No.”

The fire crackled, and Krolia sighed, watching the dark sky of Beta-Thetzi shift above them. The mountains still looked so far away.

“When’d you realise you liked him, Keith’s dad?”

Krolia smiled slightly at the question.

“Three months, maybe? Maybe sooner. He wasn’t easy to like, well he was, but he liked to argue. Dumb things, he’d make jokes but I could never understand them.”

Krolia scoffed.

“But everything he did, it was just so selfless. He was a good man, a very good man. I wish we hadn’t lost him.”

Lance was silent for a while, as was Krolia. They watched the sky grow darker, listened to the dry winds that swept across the plains of green, glassy rock.

“When did you…”

Krolia paused, debating whether the question would be too awkward to ask. She decided not; after all, Lance had asked first.

“When did you realise your feelings for Keith?”

Lance chuckled softly, then winced at the pain it caused him.

“The _bonding moment_ ,” he mumbled. “After he saved my ass and I saw this… this softer side to him. That I wanted to be a part of.”

Krolia smiled, as did Lance. Abruptly, his expression grew serious.

“But you can never, ever tell him that.”

Lance made her swear to keep that promise until he fell asleep.

-

There was something strange about the sky the next day. The normal Prussian blue was streaked with lines of silver, like pen marks through the sky. Krolia didn’t like it. Nor did she like Lance’s breathing that morning. They’d made significant progress, but the mountains were still a distance away, and now that they were closer she could see how rough the terrain became before them. Rations were low, she was growing tired, and Lance had a distinct wheeze in his chest.

She brought them to a stop in the shade of an outcrop, laid the stretcher down and fetched water for the injured boy. The she went about changing his bandages. Lance tried keeping quiet through it all, bit down on his tongue as she stripped away the blanket, then his flight shirt, before finally peeling off the bloody cloth. Her breath caught, and she knew Lance noticed.

“Bad, huh?”

“It could be worse.”

“In a universe this big, anything can be worse.”

Lance huffed at Krolia’s displeased expression.

“Am I gonna die?” He asked.

He sounded so calm about it.

“No,” she lied.

“Krolia,” he said. “You’re a worse liar than Keith.”

“You’ll die if we do nothing,” she said. “But we’re not. We just have to make it to the Galra outpost.”

“Easier said than done.”

Krolia planted her fist in the dirt beside his head, a little harder than intended.

“Your wound is fine, Lance. You are going to be fine. Because you are going to be stubborn, understand?”

He blinked.

“Keith needs you,” she said. “Your family needs you. Voltron, your friends. You are a very difficult person to replace.”

Lance cocked a brow, and she wasn’t sure if that was smugness or surprise she saw.

“Don’t,” Krolia growled, “make me replace you.”

“You’re the boss,” Lance said with a sigh.

Krolia nodded, turning her attention back to his wound.

“Now try hold still,” she said. “This is not going to be pleasant.”

 

-

 

_1 Month Earlier_

Things were peaceful following the incident with the bear and the lake. Keith healed up surprisingly fast, and things returned to relatively normal. Of course, nothing was quite normal when they were drifting through empty space, but it was as close as could be.

Since he’d saved her son’s life, Krolia hadn’t gotten much of a chance to speak with Lance. Mostly because Keith tried to keep them apart. Krolia understood, he didn’t trust her around the blue paladin, not after the things she’d done and the way she’d treated him. She’d made a mistake, that much was apparent. Now though, it was a little harder to fix it.

“Keith.”

They were seated in the black lion, well past the hour the others usually went to sleep. Krolia set her book down where she sat on the floor, running a hand through Cosmo’s fur. Keith glanced up from where he’d been programing a simulation at the controls.

“Yeah?”

Krolia sighed.

“I…”

How could she say this? Perhaps she should have thought it over more.

“I wanted to apologise.”

Keith stared.

“Apologise?”

“Yes, for… for how I treated Lance.”

Slowly, Keith set down his work, turning to her fully.

“Sounds like you should be saying this to Lance, not me.”

“I know,” she blurted. “I… I will, I just wanted to speak to you first.”

“Okay.”

Keith sat back patiently. There was a slight tension in his shoulders, but other than that he looked ready to listen. Krolia took a deep breath before continuing.

“I was wrong about him. I mistreated him because I did not trust him. And I’m sorry. I see now he… he’s a good person.”

Keith didn’t respond with anything, just looked away, tapped his fingers against his arms.

“Okay. Uh, I’m… glad.”

“Why do you hide it from the team?” Krolia asked suddenly.

She couldn’t help it, she had to know. Keith froze.

“You know,” he said.

Krolia nodded. Keith’s voice was a little croaky when he next spoke.

“When?”

“Alzula,” she admitted. “I… saw you and Lance.”

Keith took a moment to process that, to just get his thoughts in order.

“And you don’t…”

Krolia cocked her head.

“I don’t?”

“You’re okay with that?”

“It hardly matters what I’m okay with. But yes.”

Silence. Cosmo rolled over in her sleep, nose resting on Krolia’s thigh.

“The other’s don’t know because, I was worried they wouldn’t approve.”

Krolia frowned. “Why not? I thought Shiro had a fiancé-“

“No, not like that. Like they wouldn’t want two members of Voltron dating in case it… it messed up how we fought, or something. I was worried they’d try and break us up, or… o-or-“

“Keith.”

In the space of a few seconds, he’d gone from a brave, stubborn leader, to a scared boy.

“Keith, your friends would never do that to you.”

“They might for the sake of the universe-“

“They wouldn’t.”

“You tried.”

It was said very softly, a little carelessly. Krolia looked down, ashamed.

“I didn’t know. And I was wrong.”

Krolia sighed, debating what to say.

“I won’t tell anyone. It’s your choice to keep it secret. I guess I just wanted to know why.”

“Okay,” said Keith. “Thanks.”

Another, longer pause.

“He makes you happy?”

“Krolia-“

“Does he?”

She asked earnestly, openly. Keith stared at her for a long time.

“Yes,” he said softly. “Happier than I thought I could be.”

A wavering smile, which Krolia quickly hid.

“And how long?”

“Why is this an interrogation-“

“This isn’t an interrogation. I want to know. Genuinely, I want to know about your life, Keith.”

Keith bit his lip.

“Around… around the time we found Shiro. He came to me about the lion swaps and, uh, kissed me.”

Krolia gazed at him a little sadly.

“That’s… a long time. The whole time we were in the void-“

“Yeah,” said Keith. “Just… yeah.”

Keith hadn’t called out to Lance in his sleep because Lance hurt him, he called out because he _missed_ Lance. And Krolia felt terrible.

“You should sleep,” she said. “We never know what will happen tomorrow.”

Keith nodded, not really listening.

“Thank you,” she said. “For hearing out my apology.”

“Uh, yeah,” said Keith. “It… thanks, m- Krolia. I appreciate it.”

He smiled, soft and small. He really did mean the world to her. And perhaps to others too.

-

It was a mere two days later that Krolia attempted to speak with Lance. They’d landed on a planet again, a moon, actually, small and barren and desolate. It wasn’t much, but it was a place for the lion to recharge, and solid ground for them to lay their supplies on and count. She found Lance holed up between the green lions paws, sorting through masses and masses of multi-coloured wires spilling from a removed segment of the robot. He was deeply invested in his work, crossing wire after wire over one another, braiding them into long chains, untangling the mess. As Krolia drew closer, she realised he was humming to himself, an unfamiliar little melody as he worked.

When he finally caught wind of her approach, Lance turned with Pidge’s name on the tip of his tongue. He froze when he saw her, the slight lunar breeze that swept through ruffling his dusty hair. There were smudges of grey dirt on his cheeks, and his fingers fiddled anxiously with the wires as they stared each other down. Lance went through a range of emotions, from surprise, to terror, to mistrust, to resignation. He dropped her gaze, trying to pretend he hadn’t seen her as he went back to work. Krolia sighed, stepping carefully over the wires until she came to sit on a rock just a few feet from him. She picked up a handful of the wires and began untangling them.

“What are you doing?”

She made sure not to sound dismissive this time, genuinely curious. It took Lance a moment to respond; his expression was tight, as if he expected some jab.

“Pidge wanted the wires tidied up. So I’m… sorting them.”

He was helping Pidge. That was nice. Krolia felt panic swelling in her chest; she needed to let him know that was a nice thing to do. If she didn't he'd think she was here to mock him. How did she do that?

“That is a very honourable job,” she blurted.

Lance paused a second to frown at her. Krolia smiled stiffly, and he returned to his work with a funny look. Her smile dropped; how in the universe was she meant to go about this?

“Do you require assistance-“

“No, I should be good, thanks,” Lance said quickly.

“Then you won’t mind if I sit here?”

Lance’s hands tightened around the wires. He definitely minded.

“Not at all.”

Krolia let him work for a while, watching his fingers work quickly and nimbly to untangle the mess, and arrange the wires into new, ordered patterns.

“What are you doing to them?” She asked after a while, gesturing to the crossing he was making. “When you… wind them together like that.”

“Oh.” Lance stopped, setting down his work. “I’m braiding them. Pidge wanted them organised, and I didn’t really know a better way, so I’m like… braiding them like hair.”

He looked sheepish for a moment before saying-

“But it’s more complicated that that, obviously! There’s like…”

Lance grappled for the tablet he had on the ground, filled with his own scribbling’s and notes.

“Like, I’m grouping them in orders of what’re they’re used for, and stuff.”

Krolia hummed, impressed by how organised the batches of tidy wires were. She recognised the braid pattern, many of the blades wore their hair like that. She hadn’t realised humans did it to.

“Where did you learn to braid?”

Lance’s hair was short, so surely not on himself.

“Oh,” he said, slowly winding the wires together. “That’s… that was my sisters. They taught me so I could braid their hair.”

“You have a large family, correct?”

“Yeah.”

“You will see them soon, I’m sure.”

Lance looked up, a little surprised.

“I hope so.”

Krolia smiled. It still felt stiff and awkward, but not as forced as before.

“I need to check on the black lion,” she said suddenly, mostly because she was out of things to say.

Lance just nodded, returning to his work, a very puzzled look in his eyes.

 

-

 

_Present_

It was a storm. That was what the streaks of silver in the sky had heralded, the approach of a violent, supermassive storm. The first sign was the wind picking up. It made walking harder, blowing relentlessly against them over the flat plains. They were much closer to the mountains now, or more accurately, to the sharp dips and ravines that separated them from the slope. Krolia had already picked their route over the mountains, through a low-lying section, bordered by steep walls with some odd fungus growing. It was hard to make out, from this distance, but it was the route she was most hopeful about. That was, if they even made it there.

She cursed at the bitter wind as it tore at her hair and clothes, lowering her lashes to minimise the dust that got swept into her eyes. Lance had his eyes screwed shut behind her, lips in a thin line, holding dearly to the blanket at the wind battered them both. He looked… _awful_. How could a boy who’d been fine just days earlier look so gaunt? Krolia squared her shoulders, dragging the stretcher and ignoring the irritating winds. Due west, along that ridge, that was their way out. And they were going to get there.

As the wind continued, other things began to change as well. Though daytime had just come again, the dark blue sky was condensing into blackness, heavy orbs of pitch, of shadows, turning the horizon sour.

“Do you know what storms are like here?” Lance asked. “On Beta-Thetzi?”

Krolia grunted as she tugged the stretcher up a short incline, trying to maintain the pace.

“Usually they’re fine,” she muttered.

“Usually?”

“Seventy-two percent of the time,” she said, panting, stumbling down the other side of the rise. “They are fine. Normal weather conditions.”

“I’m not usually the math one, but, uh…”

Krolia sighed.

“Depending on the concentration of a specific gas in the atmosphere, at the time of the storm, it… a reaction can occur, in the upper atmosphere. And the rain boils.”

Lance’s eyes widened.

“Shouldn’t we find shelter? In case?”

Krolia paused for a minute, catching her breath. He was worried, but hopeful. He shouldn’t have been.

“We don’t have time,” she said softly.

Lance blinked up at her. She grimaced, her eyes roaming down his face, to his neck, to the purplish skin.

“You’re reacting to the Altean meds,” she said. “You’re going to die.”

Krolia didn’t wait to see him respond, didn’t want to. She picked up the stretcher and began to walk, marching towards the hills and the mountain pass. _Due west_ ; what a sick joke. If he died, she’d crush this compass under foot.

 

-

 

_3 Weeks Earlier_

Despite how unexpectedly civil their last interaction had been, Lance and Krolia still didn’t interact much. They had little reason to, given how awkward it was for them both. It was an effort, to interact, draining, trying to piece together the shattered nothing that defined them previously. But when Krolia handed the bread bowl to Lance unprompted at dinner, Keith had practically beamed at her, so she supposed she’d keep trying. Small acts, little things, just to show she wasn’t plotting to rip his head off anymore. Krolia was bad at this, making friends, but for Keith, she’d try.

So she stopped growling at Lance when he brought Keith tea in the mornings, and stopped rolling her eyes at him in meetings. No more scaring him as he came around corners, or trying to bribe Cosmo to steal his clothes while he was in the shower. She was going to be _nice_. When he cooked them meals, she thanked him, when he carried an exhausted Keith to bed, she let him go without clinging to his heels and demanding where he was taking her son. An alien from the planet they were on mocked the blue paladin when he tripped coming up the stairs to their palace, so Krolia punched him in the face. That hadn’t gone over too well with the others, or the planet, but she reckoned she’d done quite well. Even if it did get them thrown out the city.

It was progress, slow but sure, a little thought to keep in the back of her mind while they battled their way towards Earth. And battle they did. Pidge fell sick one morning, just a flu at first. But she got sicker, and sicker, until Allura realised it was something she’d picked up from a planet, something bad. So now they were stopped in hostile territory, investigating a Galra base in search of the medicine they needed. The ground team, consisting of Keith, Allura, and Hunk, were already inside the facility, which was currently unoccupied given the inhabitants were out on patrol. This was only a small facility, and the group that occupied it often left it unattended, but if they found out Voltron was here, they could send word to others. So that was what Lance and Krolia were for.

They were perched on an outcrop overlooking the facility, minding the rocky road that lead away from it. They’d hoped the Galra wouldn’t return until their team had secured the medicine, but lo and behold, coming up the road right now, were twenty Galra and a handful of mule-like animals to carry their supplies.

“Team, we have company,” Lance barked into the comms.

He kept his eyes on the scope, watching the Galra approach.

“ _We need more time!_ ” Keith called. “ _The medicine’s behind a locked safe, and without Pidge… we need more time._ ”

“Okay,” said Lance. “But make it snappy.”

He turned to Krolia, a stern look on his face.

“We need to get down there and stop them.”

Krolia glanced at the group.

“There’s twenty of them.”

“Is that a problem?”

Her gaze hardened, meeting his determine stare.

“No.”

Lance smirked, looking unusually dangerous as he hoist his gun over his shoulder and ran for the slope. Krolia slid down after him, grabbing her gun from its holster and emerging onto the road to take down their enemy.

It was swift. It was quick, it was almost _easy_. She hadn’t realised her and Lance would fight that well together. Her guess was that she fought in a similar enough way to Keith that their coordination matched the way Lance and Keith fought together. Because it was almost effortless. He’d cover her, she’d cover him; they kept eyes on everyone despite how outnumbered they were. By the time the final body fell, Krolia could scarcely believe what they’d done. Not all the Galra were dead, Lance had stunned a large number of them, something Krolia wouldn’t have done. He refused to celebrate it, death, no matters whose it was. He did share something with her though, pride, perhaps, at how well they’d worked together. When the others emerged with Pidge’s medicine in tow, he shot her a real smile, and it was the most progress they’d made.

-

It was a week later, camped out on a planet at sunset, that Lance told her something which made her heart stop. It had somehow ended up just them two again, the others watching over Pidge, or out exploring the fields, or training, as sun set over the vast pastures of this peaceful world.

“I want to ask Keith to marry me,” Lance said.

He was staring right at the sinking sun; it was pale enough, gentle enough, for them to watch its wavering pink image settle below the wispy blades of grass.

“But I want to know how you’d feel.”

Krolia stopped. Just stopped, everything, for a moment. Lance hadn’t said anything else, nothing leading up to it. It took her by surprise. They sat there in silence, the grass tickling their ankles, and eventually Lance sighed.

“I know we’re… really young, and stuff. We wouldn’t have to get married right away! If he- you know, if he said yes. It wouldn’t have to be for ages, definitely not until we were back on Earth, and… and I know we’ll need time to adjust to that, but I… I…”

He trailed off. His words were passionate, emotional. Lance stared hard at the ground as a thousand thoughts and feelings compacted upon his shoulders.

“I just know,” he said softly. “I used to not get it, when people said you’d just _know_. But I do, oh my god, I do, I know it’s him. I-I know it’s him that’s meant to- if he’ll have me, then it’s just… him.”

His stuttering came to a stop, and Krolia didn’t know if he was about to laugh or cry or just get up and leave. But Lance stood his ground. No tears, no brushing it off, no fleeing. He stayed sitting there, fisting handfuls of grass as he waited, anxiously, hopefully, for a response.

“I used to think you stole the blue lion from Keith,” Krolia said.

Lance’s breath caught, but he didn’t interrupt.

“I thought he’d found it, rightfully, and you’d stolen it away.”

A pause. The breeze was soft and summery when it swept over them, carrying an earthy scent and the chatter of other paladins from down in the field. Krolia sighed.

“But that’s not it,” she said. “You didn’t steal it from him. He found it… because it was meant to belong to you. Keith found the blue lion, because both of them, one day, were destined to be tied to you.”

She looked up, at Lance. He looked back with wide, questioning eyes, a little terrified.

“That’s my answer,” said Krolia. “That’s what I think.”

For a moment, stunned silence. Krolia smiled. Then Lance’s face was screwing up, the damn wall breaking, and Krolia yelped as suddenly she had an armful of sniffling blue paladin.

“Uh, there… there?” She offered, awkwardly patting his back.

Lance spent a full minute crying into her shoulder, before pulling back sheepishly and rubbing frantically at his eyes.

“Sorry,” he mumbled.

“It’s fine.”

Lance’s smile was wobbly, but so full of joy it barely mattered. He laughed, light as a feather, before collapsing on his back in the grass. He grinned up at the sky, alight with pale colour, and Krolia would’ve thought she’d given him the world. She looked down the hill, to where Keith was taking a walk with Shiro, discussing tactics no doubt. Did he understand, did he know how much Lance loved him? Yes, Krolia thought, he probably already did.

 

-

 

_Present_

Lance stared at the sky with very little of an expression to give it. The dark mass of the storm was above them now, and slowly, slowly, it was beginning to rain. Only a drop every couple of seconds, like a tap dripping in the sky. Lance stared up at it, his left hand braced over the blanket, thumb rubbing over his ring finger like he regretted something. Another drop.

Krolia kept walking, one step after the other up the incline. The ground was rough, and the ravines were growing nearer. Massive fungi loomed ahead, up the hill, along the treacherous path through the mountains. A drop of water hit Lance’s face, and he shut his eyes.

“Krolia,” he said. “The rain’s getting warmer.”


	4. west bound

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually cannot say a big enough thank you to you all for reading!! I love the comments guys, thank you so much <3
> 
> Not the cheeriest chapter but hang in there..  
> ([here's](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VusJR_t55lc) the song I envisioned these nerds dancing to at the start of the chapter in case anyones interested)

_1 Week Earlier_

Given his enthusiasm and general sense of joy surrounding her approval, Krolia had half expected Lance to go running down the hill and propose to Keith on the spot. Of course that hadn’t happened, but it had been fun to entertain the thought. Lance meant what he’d said; it didn’t have to be immediate. It was just… there, a thing that was going to happen, a good thing. The team didn’t even know yet, about their relationship, so that had to be the place to start. It only took a matter of days for Lance to tell them, and Krolia could not have been happier.

It was evening aboard the rebel carrier craft, at least, by their clocks. There was no real evening out here, in the still void, but this was the time they’d all meet together after a long day, to talk, and laugh, and start preparing their dinner. It was nice in here when they were all there, cosy, as much as space could be. Coran was helping Hunk cook, the others were sat around the table talking and playing games, and Krolia sat back a little, watching, basking in their momentary happiness.

It was truth or dare, that’s what they were playing. It wasn’t serious though; the questions sounded rather funny, and the dares were ridiculous, playful, confined to the little carrier. Pidge had hooked up a device she’d built that allowed them to play music, so soft little notes of songs Krolia rarely recognised made for a calm undertone to their chatter. A roar of laughter went up as Romelle completed her silly dare, revealing the mess the mice had made of her hair, filled with ribbons and a few of Hunk’s tools. Krolia smiled softly, shaking her head as she went back to the book she was reading.

She wasn’t really taking in the words, but it gave her an excuse to just listen to them, and their happy voices. It was comforting in a way she couldn’t explain. Growing up, she’d never had that, _happy noises_. The Blades never acted like this, never played music, or sat around laughing; they didn’t enjoy each other’s presence like this. The first time she’d felt it was in the desert. Akira liked noise, even if he wasn’t one for talking. He’d put the tv on, never watch it, just to hear the background chatter. He’d play records all hours of the day, so even if one was working outside, there was a faint, almost inaudible hum. And it was nice, nice in a way she couldn’t describe.

A new song came on, and Krolia was sure she must have heard it once, many years ago. She didn’t pay it much mind, until Lance was jumping in his seat, grinning widely and exclaiming how much he loved it. It was sweet, seeing him so excited.

“Truth or dare, Lance?” Pidge asked.

“Hm…” He frowned, pretending to think hard on it. “Dare!”

Keith chuckled beside him, amused by the blue paladin’s act. The others were all grouping together, debating what dare to give him. Hunk poked his head up from his cooking, forming an idea.

“He likes the song, guys,” he said.

Then he looked at Lance, and smirked.

“I dare you to dance with the prettiest person in the room.”

A few _oohs_ went up, and everyone looked subtly towards Allura. Lance looked shocked for a quick second before falling into an easy smirk.

“What kind of dance?”

“Any.”

“Pfft, that’s too easy guys,” he said, laughing.

He stood anyway though, tucking in his chair as everyone else became preoccupied with each other, snickering. Allura looked exasperated, but amused; Hunk clearly thought he was doing Lance a favour, giving him an excuse to dance with her. Lance paused for a moment, hands clasping the back of his chair. He was working himself up to something. Krolia started smiling before it even happened.

“Keith,” said Lance.

He held out his hand, an open invitation to the boy seated beside him. Lance looked nervous enough to start crying, but he held his smile, and stood up straight, and didn’t let his had waver.

“Wanna dance?”

And then, there was silence. No one was snickering anymore. Krolia struggled to hide her smile, looking at their shocked faces. From Pidge, to Hunk, to Romelle, everyone sat there with stunned expressions, mouths agape. Allura was frowning softly, trying to work out what it meant. Only Shiro looked unsurprised, and was leaning back in his chair with a shit-eating grin. Krolia turned her attention to her son, who was staring at the hand Lance had offered him like it might catch fire. He blinked, stunned, lips parted as he fumbled to find his tongue. Lance looked so hopeful, hand outstretched like that, just waiting. Realising he couldn’t exactly leave him like that, Keith quickly took a hold of his hand. Krolia could _hear_ the relieved breath that escaped Lance’s lips.

Keith looked so stunned, wide eyes drinking in Lance’s soft, encouraging smile. Lance led him back from the table, onto the small, empty floor. The song was just picking up, so smooth in juxtaposition to the sharp shock of the others and the stiff way Lance’s hand settled on Keith’s waist. Numbly, Hunk wound it back, so its started up from the beginning again.

“You know this one, yeah,” Lance breathed out nervously. “We’ve danced to it before?”

Keith nodded jerkily, unable to look at the others just yet. Shiro was so close to laughing Krolia thought he might hurt himself if he kept trying to hold it in. Lance took a deep breath, and seemingly made up his mind. He smiled at Keith, confident, full of love, a second before he was pulling him in to dance.

They had danced to this before, because Keith knew where to put his feet, how to follow, even though the pace was fast. Lance’s shrugged off any nervousness he still felt the second they started dancing, grinning as he clasped Keith’s hand and spun them, gliding effortlessly across the small space. Keith was still a little in shock, tripped up on a few of his steps; but Lance laughed the mistakes off and slowly, slowly, he started to smile too. He gazed at the blue paladin in awe, growing bolder with every step. He laughed as Lance spun him out, and he twirled back in, oblivious to the others and their comically wide eyes.

Krolia felt tears welling in her eyes, and quickly slapped them away before anyone could notice. They just looked… so happy. She wasn’t sure she’d seen Keith like this, so bewildered, so happy, so carefree. His and Lance’s eyes didn’t stray from one another, not through the whole thing, not through Hunk setting down his spoon to watch them properly and Allura starting to grin madly and Pidge toppling off her chair. It was just them, dancing circles in the warm lights of the carrier craft, the radio crackling with noise that fell flat as soon as it seeped through the walls out into the dark, dark void beyond. It was just them, right up until the end, their steps slowing, smiling giddily at each other as the song wound to a close.

And it stopped. A new song started playing, but that spell had broken. Lance still couldn’t take his eyes off Keith, amazed by his very presence. A short cough reminded them both they had spectators. The pair turned, Lance’s arm still looped around Keith’s waist. The others were watching them with a mix of shock and delight.

“Uh…” said Lance.

He smiled, small and shy but so happy. Keith’s fingers tightened in his shirt, and Krolia remembered her son’s fear, that once the team knew they’d try and split them apart.

“So… so you know how it was Lance and Keith, neck and neck?” Lance stuttered.

“Well it’s, um-“ he laughed shakily, then grabbed Keith’s hand, swinging them slightly. “It’s Lance and Keith, hand in hand now.”

“Oh my god,” said Hunk.

“Has been for a few months,” Lance squeaked.

“Oh my god!” Said Pidge.

Lance beamed, snaking an arm around Keith’s waist and tugging him in close. Keith looked a little stunned again, but there was a light smile gracing his lips.

“And, um…” Lance continued, as the others began to _riot_ with surprised excitement. “I wanna say some stuff.”

Lance pointed suddenly Hunk, clicking his fingers.

“Hunky-boy, I need that stool.”

Hunk obliged happily, kicking the small kitchen stool across the floor to Lance, who caught it with his foot.

“Alright,” he said, nudging it towards Keith. “Up.”

“What?” Keith blurted, out of his depth for the second time in just a few minutes.

“Up,” Lance repeated. “It’s you pedestal. Pede- _stool_.”

Keith just stared. “What.”

Sighing, Lance set both hands on his waist, and before Keith could blink, hoisted him up onto the foot high stool. Krolia chuckled, along with some others, at Keith’s startled expression. Lance grinned at him, giving his hand a reassuring squeeze before turning to confront the others.

“So, uh, we’re a thing, guys. And I… I want to say some things that… I haven’t been able to before.”

The team couldn’t keep quiet now, all excited chatter and encouragements. Lance had never looked so alive, not when he turned to Keith and took hold of his hand as he gazed up at him. Keith had gone bright, bright red, and Krolia was beginning to think that was definitely a Lance related thing.

“Keith,” Lance began, chuckling softly when Keith hid his face behind a hand.

“I know you’ve been scared to tell the others. I think I’ve been too. I think it… I know I’ve been scared because this is the most real part of my life.”

Krolia’s smile wobbled at the sight of her son’s expression. Lance had barely even begun talking, and Keith was going to cry.

“But I don’t want to ignore how much I love you,” Lance said. “Sorry, but its too hard.”

Lance’s voice dropped, softer. He took both of Keith’s hands, gazing up at him on that make-do pedestal like Keith was a sunrise, and he’d been waiting all night to see it. When Lance spoke again, it was for Keith alone.

“You’re like the answer,” he said. “Nothing made proper sense until I knew you. Everything was hanging in the balance, nothing certain, and… and nothing I wanted an entire future out of.”

The others weren’t really listening, not when Lance spoke so softly, so directly, to Keith. Instead, they shared their happiness with each other, disbelieving but so full of joy. It was wonderful, it was _wonderful_ ; Krolia had never felt so free.

“No one’s gonna separate us,” Lance said, hooking his finger around Keith’s. “No one’s gonna do that. Wherever you chose to go in this weird, wide universe, I’m coming with you. Because that’s where the answer to it is, Keith, with you. Everything else, everything, it sorts itself out around that. It’s just… you.”

Lance smiled, squeezing Keith’s wrist as he began to sniffle, red cheeks growing redder as tears flooded his eyes.

“And I love you,” said Lance. “And if I don’t tell the whole world that I might actually explode.”

Keith choked on a laugh, trying to hide his tearful face from the others.

“Kiss him Keith!” Shiro yelled.

Keith flipped him off, wiping away another flood of tears as Lance beamed at him.

“Love you too,” me mumbled, and the others cheered.

“I-I… don’t know how to say it, I love you too, I…”

Lance shook his head, wrapping his arms around Keith’s stomach.

“Don’t need to,” he said. “I just wanted you to know.”

And Keith was laughing, and still crying, and their teammates were hollering around them. He wrapped his arms around Lance’s neck, pulling Lance’s onto his tip-toes to kiss him. Shiro cheered, much to Krolia’s amusement, as the pair shared a heartfelt kiss, all soft and mushy and ridiculously tender. Keith let the blue paladin lift him from the stool and spin them both around before setting him on his feet, laughing into the kiss, tugging Lance down for more. Cosmo whined softly besides Krolia, confused as to what all the fuss was about. She gave the wolf a pat, gazing fondly and the red and blue paladin as they shared a few words that were lost in the din of the others excited chatter.

Every one was so happy, acting so unlike Keith had expected. It made Krolia feel warm, made the world tangible again. Pidge and Hunk were laughing together, dancing playfully to the song now that Keith and Lance were enwrapped with each other. Lance took the red paladins hand very gently in his own, brought it to his lips and placed a soft kiss against his ring finger. Krolia knew what it meant; Keith did too. Lance didn’t need to say anything at all. Telling the team was the first step, the first assurance that they were setting up a future together, for the both of them.

Shiro slumped against the wall besides Krolia, smiling widely, watching the scene unfold before them.

“You knew,” she said.

Shiro shook his head with a fond smile.

“I knew before _they_ knew.”

Krolia laughed a little at that.

“Don’t know if he told you,” Shiro continued. “But Keith’s been pining after Lance since the Garrison.”

Krolia’s eyes wandered to her son, who was swaying slowly in Lance’s arms, a love-struck look about him.

“I’m afraid I’m more oblivious than him,” she said. “I thought they hated each other.”

Shiro snorted.

“Runs in the family,” he said. “When Adam confessed to me, I thanked him.”

Krolia cracked a smile.

“When Akira confessed, his wording confused me, so I pinned him to the floor with a knife to his throat.”

Shiro’s laughter was worth the world to hear, after all Krolia knew he’d been through lately. She let it die down before speaking.

“Adam, he’s your partner back on Earth?”

Shiro stilled, wrapping his arm protectively across his body.

“Uh, in a way. We were engaged but… we broke it off, just before I left for Kerberos. He didn’t… it’s complicated.”

Shiro smiled, but it was sad.

“I guess a lot of things are.”

Over the sound of the others, and the soft music, came the heavy silence in the wake of Shiro’s words. They were so full of longing, and regret; they were things Krolia knew too well.

“What will you do now, that we’re returning?”

Shiro chuckled nervously, shaking his head.

“I’m not sure. I… I wish things had gone differently. He’s still one of the most precious people to me-“

“Then tell him that.”

“Pardon?”

Krolia met the young man’s eye, kindness in her gaze.

“Tell him,” she repeated. “When we get to Earth tell him. Because in five years from now, ten, or twenty, rejection won’t matter. You have to fight for the people you love, and you belong with, at every opportunity. Else… else you’ll lose them. They’ll slip through, they always do.”

Krolia paused, sighing deeply.

“Tell him. You have had enough hard days to last a lifetime, Takashi. The balance is there you just have to take it.”

Shiro blinked back at her, thoughtful, his mind whisked away to a place many millions of miles from them.

“O-okay,” he said eventually. “I guess… I should try.”

Krolia smiled. “I guess you-“

She was cut off by a quiet, but persistent beeping. Her mouth snapped shut as her and everyone else’s attention slowly gravitated towards the consul, where a small red light had begun flashing like crazy. Lance and Keith paused in each other’s arms, Allura setting Pidge back down on the floor after twirling her around, and walking over to the consol. The team waited in anticipation, glancing at each other in search of answers. Allura looked over the screens for a minute, her frown deepening by the second.

“Everyone back to your lions,” she said, calm, but serious. “There’s a solar storm headed our way.”

In the space of a second, the happy mood evaporated. Hunk shut off the radio, Coran cleared their things from the table, and Lance and Keith separated with a brief touch of hands.

“Comms on as soon as you’re in your lions,” Allura instructed, already going for her armour in the corner of the carrier. “This could get rough.”

 

-

 

_Present_

At first, the rain was pleasant.

“What about Red?”

It was a comforting warmth, right there against her skin.

“Krolia. Krolia, what about Red?”

It was better for Lance than the cold, better for his fever.

“Krolia, Krolia please, p-please…” Lance cut himself off sobbing.

The rain was getting hotter. And Lance was delirious.

“What about Red-“

“Red is fine!” She snapped.

Krolia heaved the stretcher along, up the steep incline, its rocky ground near impossible to make progress over. She could hear Lance’s weak cries over her shoulder, knew his skin was flushed red from the fever and the slowly warming water, that infection and blood loss and his reaction to the Altean medication were all making him like this. _Hopeless_. And helpless.

“Red is fine,” she grit out.

Because the lion would be. Eventually the others would find it, whether or not Lance and Krolia ever made it off this planet alive. But the thought of _danger_ in Lance’s feverish mind equated to his lion. Krolia looked ahead, up the steep path, where massive fungi sat like hulking baobabs in the wavering light. The rain had soaked them already, and now, as the drops began to hit her skin, she flinched. They weren’t just warm, they were hot. Soon, they’d boil. Krolia grit her teeth, muscles screaming as she dragged the stretcher up, up, higher up this treacherous hill. Lance was babbling, nonsensical words cluttering the space in her head as the rain came down thicker. She wanted to yell at him, tell him to shut up, let her focus on the climb. When he became silent for a minute, it seemed like a blessing, until-

“You should leave me.”

Krolia stumbled, falling to her knees and dropping the stretcher as it caught on a rock. She picked it back up, ignored what Lance had said, and kept walking. But he kept crying, and he kept talking.

“Krolia,” he said. “You should leave me.”

He didn’t even sound as delirious,.

“We’re going to die,” he said. “We’re too slow, Krolia, get to shelter.”

She grit her teeth, wishing she could direct that growl at him as she trudged stubbornly up the hill. The rain hurt. It was starting to hurt, little pinpricks of fire, catching on her arms.

“Krolia-“

“Shut up!” She yelled.

She turned, furious, the anger dying on her tongue when she saw the blisters forming on Lance’s bare skin, on his cheeks. Human skin was more fragile than Galra’s.

“Lance!”

She dived forward, covering his body with hers, as her eyes raked over the furious red dotting Lance’s skin.

“Should leave me now,” he mumbled, still crying, salty tears mingling with the burning rainwater.

Krolia wrapped arms around him and heaved him off the stretcher. If Lance cried out in pain, she didn’t know, just went to work flipping the stretcher. It wasn’t that large of a strip of metal, but it was enough to prop against the rock face, cover them for a moment as the rain came pouring down, sizzling where it met the ground. Lance looked up at her, eyes filing with tears, too weak to lift his hand from the boiling puddle it lay in. She lifted it for him, lay it over his chest, where the sodden blanket provided little cover. He wanted her to leave him out here? Where the rain would eat away at his skin, cook him alive until it severed his nerves, and he melted into this hellish landscape? No.

“Should leave-“

“Lance!” She yelled.

He didn’t even flinch, just shut his eyes and cried.

“We’re going to die,” he mumbled, lips quivering. “We’re going to, aren’t we?”

Krolia glared down at him, propping the stretcher up with her back. It would hold, but it wouldn’t insulate. The metal was growing warm against her skin, and the air… the air was turning to steam. Scalding, scorching, steam. She looked at Lance through a cloud, the burning moisture leaving them short of breath. He was still crying, and she doubted she could make him stop. _Poor boy_. That’s all he was, a boy, barely into adulthood, and about to die.

_No_ , she wanted to shout back, viciously, _no we are not going to die_. Because Lance was going to pull through, somehow, and she was going to hold this shelter until the storm cleared, and they would return, they would find the others, and maybe one day Lance would ask Keith to marry him, and maybe one day she’d return to Earth, and one day they’d have a family that she’d be a part of and grandchildren she would fuss over and everything would be just _okay_. No one would have to leave anyone again, and their time on Earth would not depend upon a change in the weather or a turn in the war, and she would stay with them, and she would love them, and maybe one day she’d return to that shack in the desert where the sunset bled colours onto the old timber walls and the dirt and the dust were red, and it was warm, and it was home.

All of that, all those words, sat on the tip of Krolia’s tongue. She gazed down at Lance, sheltering his body with her own, and felt the metal against her back start to blister her skin. Lance made an awful, awful gasping noise, struggling to breathe in the thick steam. She still hadn’t answered his question. _Are we going to die?_ Krolia shook her head, and felt herself begin to cry, and wanted, so badly, to say no.

“I don’t know,” she said.

She took his cheek gently in her hand, grimacing at the heat radiating off his skin and the pained expression on his face. He’d die first; he’d stop breathing.

“I just wanted… just wanted-“ Lance choked on his words, gasping for breath but finding once he got it, it scorched his lungs. “T-to see my mom.”

Tears filled his eyes, and they searched the small confines of their dwindling shelter hopelessly.

“Wanted to see my mom,” he sobbed. “A-again. I want my mom.”

He dissolved into tears, body twitching as he tried to get air in and out, the hot air blistering his cheeks. Krolia couldn’t take it, watching him suffer. She lay her head on his chest, cradling the boy as he continued to twitch, and cry, and hurt. As he continued to die. She held him tight, wishing there was someway to block out the pain, tears clouding her vision as they slipped from her cheeks and onto Lance’s chest.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “Lance, it’s alright. It’s alright.”

A loud sob, which cut off at the taste of burning air, devolving into a fit. He couldn’t breathe, thrashing in her arms. He couldn’t breathe, and Krolia bit her cheek until it bled, crying. She shut her eyes, willing it to stop, willing to pain to be over quickly. Lance didn’t deserve this, he couldn’t. Like Akira, he was that sort of person, the type that never deserved to suffer and die, but who did, who continued to, for others, or for no reason at all. What a pointless, pointless way to die, burning alive in the rain on a desolate planet.

Lance’s whole body convulsed in her arms, and Krolia’s eyes fluttered open. She grit her teeth, crying bitterly as the boy slumped against the ground, going limp. She couldn’t look at him, couldn’t bare it, stared out at the rain instead, the wavering mass of greens rocks through the steam and-

And the fungi.

The massive, hulking bodies of fungus that sprouted from the barren ground like mushrooms, their pale exteriors steaming a little as the rain pelted down but… but they held. They did not melt, didn’t shrivel up and die; the fungi barely seemed bothered by the rain at all. A choked noise made it past Krolia’s lips, before she was scrambling to her feet, knocking the metal sheet above them as she struggled up. The metal hit her back and she hissed as it burnt her, shouldering it into place so it would stay balanced over Lance. Then she was rolling out from their shelter, throwing her arms over he face as she _ran_.

It burnt, like the nose of her ship as she careened towards Earth, like the showers of acid the Galra attacked their ground base with. Krolia yelled, buckling under the burning intensity of the rain and the steam that clogged her lungs, peeled her flesh from the inside out. Over the rocky ground, slipping in the boiling puddles; she slammed into the side of a fungus nearly twice her height. The lip of the plant provided a little cover from the rain, but the air was still burning, scalding droplets slipping down the plant.

Krolia only had one knife. It wasn’t a good one, not the one she’d prefer, but she would have used her hands if she had to. She plunged it into the fungus, yelling as she withdrew it and stabbed it in again, hacking at the plant, cutting open a long slit. It was tough, it had to be, for the plant to protect itself from this boiling rain. It was tough, but with her knife and her hands, Krolia tore at the thick, slimy walls until she had some sort of opening. Krolia dropped the knife, ragged breaths burning her lungs. She stuck her hand into the hole; it was slimy, but hollow.

The rain was no more merciful as she ran back for their shelter, tempting blisters to the surface of her back as she sprinted. Krolia threw the chuck of smouldering metal aside, grabbing Lance’s lifeless body and hefting him up. She hid him against her chest, running with the human as the force of the rain and the pain she felt threatened to bring her down. Her vision was blurring, black spots dancing in the corners of her eyes as she gasped for air but came up dry, steam filling her mouth, nose, and eyes. The fungus was before them, the slit she’d cut oozing a vicious liquid. If it was toxic, then so be it. She had no other option.

Grunting with effort, Krolia managed for force Lance through the wound in the plants rigid wall, following him with a shoulder, her chest, slipping her legs through until they were fighting away the innards of the fungus. Lance was completely unconscious, perhaps dead already, but Krolia drew him to her, forcing her way into the middle of the fungus while clawing blinding at the thick slime and spindly bits of plant matter. She sagged against the spongy interior, kicking weakly at the entrance, trying to close up the small slit. Exhausted, skin raw and stinging, she shut her eyes. It was pitch black in here anywhere; all there was to see was the thin strip of light from where she’d cut through, already clogging up with slime. Lance was in her arms, a deadweight against her body. Krolia stilled, and breathed.

It was almost cold in here. The slime covered her arms, soothing against the hot burns that covered her entirely. In the dark, she could hear the rain hammering outside, but in here, the air was cool. Krolia let go a shuddering breath, turned to a sob, scooping Lance up and bringing him closer. She wasn’t sure, wasn’t sure if he was breathing or not. She tucked her nose into his hair, crying weakly as the rain continued outside. Her legs were jelly, barely supporting her as she leant against the plant.

_Due west_ , that’s what she thought about as she held the fragile body of this human and cried quietly to herself in the belly of that plant. Due west, where the sun would set during the time her days were perfect. That’s where they were headed, that was what could save them; in the west was everything she’d ever loved. But if he died she wouldn’t look that way again.


	5. equidistant

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter! Thank you everyone for the overwhelming support, you're all such lovely people and motivate me to write <3
> 
> I hope you'll like the ending to this little story..

Lance was breathing.

Dawn on Beta Thetzi, and his chest rose slight and subtle. Krolia found the rest didn’t matter. Not the burns on her back, or the matted blood on the legs of her pants, or the stench of burnt ground that hung in the air. It was morning here, but she didn’t know how many dawns and dusks had passed since the storm had begun, only that it was over now, and now the sun was rising. And Lance was breathing.

He hung off her back, hadn’t come back to consciousness since he’d passed out in the rain. Krolia carried him up the steady slope, blinking sweat out her eyes, keeping her back hunched so he didn’t slip off. He didn’t move; the only indication he was alive was the small breath of air she could feel against her neck when she came to a standstill, small enough for the wind to snatch it away. She missed his talking, missed the jokes he’d crack as they walked and even his pointless ramblings to the sky. His presence was dwindling, held together by threads, and she would not let this world have the last scrap.

The footprints Krolia left over the rocks were red, tinted with blood. Dried slime covered their bodies, and the hitch in her breathing told her she had injuries she was ignoring. It didn’t matter though, none of it did, because Lance was breathing, and they were heading west.

The day drew on, and she kept walking. One foot ahead of the other, one step at a time, they were moving, forward and up. They had no supplies, Krolia didn’t have the strength to carry anything but Lance. If they didn’t make it to the base by the time they needed water, they’d have died anyway. She trudged on, hands hooked under Lance’s knees, as the changing sky looked down on them.

Krolia stopped once, and once exactly. It was mentality, keeping her going, keeping her distracted. It was imagining Keith’s face when he saw them, imagining wrapping her son in her arms one more time, seeing him reunited with this boy she carried, the one he loved. It was stupid fantasies of Earth, imagining futures out of the blurred mess of visions she’d seen in the void. Then it was Akira. It was Akira very early in the morning, out on the porch as he watched the tendrils of smoke from a bonfire lose themselves to the sky. It was Akira in the kitchen, teaching her to peel oranges, or in light of the tv screen, laughing his head off at a joke she didn’t understand. It was the man she loved, drunk off his face at two in the morning, challenging her to an arm wrestling match. It was him, in his tacky hat in the sun, holding her as she fell asleep, taking her hand before the force-field of an enormous blue lion, as if either had a clue what they were doing.

It was waking up to him, and him alone, every morning she spent on that planet. Akira was what forced her feet forward, one step then another, the memory of his voice and his pensive face, the shape of his palm and then, his arms cradling Keith. It was his memories and the feel of what loving him had been that got her up, up the ridge, towards the peak. Then it was him, on the porch, in the red light of the desert, watching her leave. And it was wrong. She was in the west and he was in the east, and it wasn’t right anymore. She wanted to stay, with him, and with her baby, to hold them both in the safety of her arms and just… _stay_.

Krolia stopped once, when the memories weren’t her own. They were Keith’s, a flash from the void, of him standing over his father’s grave. Her knees hit the ground and for a minute, she was crying, _sobbing_ , clutching her stomach as devastated cries shook her body. There wasn’t anyone there for her, on Earth. It had just been him, like mirage, like she could have imagined him if it weren’t for her son and the _ache_ that came when she thought about him. Now he was nothing, just a gravestone she could visit, and it knocked the air from her lungs and tore every noise she had from her because when the world took him it took everything. Like a heavy ink, everything now was tainted, and nothing about the future was warm, or sweet, or _wanted_. There wasn’t a point to him dying, there wasn’t a point to them wasting the rest of their lives apart. It just happened, stupidly, and it was devastating in a sense she could not phantom.

Krolia let herself cry, Lance hanging weakly from her back, where the blisters bled. There wasn’t anything for her on Earth; only Keith. _So think of Keith_. She did. As she pushed herself to her feet, and secured Lance on her back, she thought of her son, he only son, her only family, and the person she truly, _truly_ loved most. The first time she held him, she could fit him in her hand. With shaky arms and a forehead dowsed in sweat, she’d taken him from Akira’s arms and just… held him. He was so unlike everything she’d expected, small and pink with a wrinkly fast, who balled his fists and cried when he wasn’t getting the attention he wanted.

That first week of having Keith with her, she mustn’t have taken her eyes off him once. It was so little time, they had so little time together. He couldn’t speak, couldn’t walk, but he smiled at her, and reached for her when he wanted to be held. She had him long enough to watch his hair grown out, to comb her fingers through it as she rocked him to sleep. It was every moment she’d ever been waiting for, wrapped into a person, into the bundle she held in her arms. It was _him_ , suddenly, that existence seemed made for.

Krolia stopped, panting, the memories slipping away along with the tears glistening in her eyes. She stood at the top of a hill crest, the tipping point of this mountain ridge. Below her, the land fell gradually, giving rise to more hills and eventually, miles and miles of endless green plains. The rock glinted in the sun, teasing her with its vastness. That didn’t matter though, that entire endless planet. What mattered were the heavy grey bunkers sunk into the rock, their metallic rooves shining. _The Galra base_. Ignoring the screaming pain in her knees, Krolia adjusted her hold on Lance, and set off down the hill.

-

It was not what she wanted. The ascent vehicles were gone, leaving only the base itself, a structure not exactly intended to re-enter space. It wasn’t what she wanted, but it would do. Krolia set Lance down carefully on the bridge of the bunker they were in. These ships acted as both vessels and the basic building structure, allowing for a quick set up. No one had lived here for years, the mining gone dry, but traces of Galra occupancy still lingered. She tracked down their meagre supplies, what was salvageable. Stuffing protein bars into her face, Krolia tried giving some of the water to Lance. He was completely unresponsive.

Ignoring the sick feeling that put in her stomach, she went about changing his bandage. They could still be here for a few hours while she figured out how to get the engines running; he’d need all the help he could get to keep clinging to life. Tucking Lance up to keep him warm, Krolia set about bringing the ship back to life.

An hour later, this was still not what she wanted. It would take off, of that she was sure. There was enough fuel once she siphoned it off from the other bunkers. Enough to blast them through the atmosphere; they’d be gracing orbit, but… it would be enough for the escape pod. There was just one left, but that was all they needed. It couldn’t take flight from the ground, but once they breached the atmosphere, she could eject it. With a distress beacon inside, Voltron was bound to find it, as long as they were still on the lookout for them. One escape pod, one paladin to fill it, and her, to fly this piece of junk back into space. Krolia drew a deep breath, glancing at the blue paladin sprawled on the floor. He didn’t have long, she had better get started.

-

Selfishly, Krolia had hoped Lance might wake as she laid him down in the escape pod. She wanted to say goodbye to him, pat his hair and explain to him that it was all going to be alright. He’d be back with the team soon, he’d be with Keith, and she would hold every hope of happiness for them. The pain would be over, he’d see his mother, and he would have changed her life for the better. But he didn’t wake, didn’t even stir, his face slack and still as she strapped him tightly into the chair and pressed a kiss to his forehead. That would have to do, that was all they could share now; she struggled not to cry as she sealed up the pod and left for the bridge.

Everything was ready. The controls hummed shakily beneath her hands as Krolia warmed the engines, checking and cross checking, closely monitoring the condition of the escape pod. The whole bunker shook dangerously as she coaxed it into position, the floor tilting, flipping the vessel as it prepared for an explosive launch.

“It’s alright,” she whispered, though Lance couldn’t hear her.

She wanted him to know that, she just wanted him to know. _It’s alright_. The sun was creeping into the sky now, so Krolia wrapped her fingers around the controls, fixed her eye on the sky, and breathed.

-

The force of it knocked her back. She was used to it by now, but with the open wounds on her body, it hurt.

-

For a moment, she feared they might just dissolve into flames. But the engines fired and the ship lurched as it was propelled towards the atmosphere. Krolia felt her teeth rattling, vision disturbed by the rabid shaking of the vessel.

-

Higher. The green ground stretched below them, growing more distant by the second. She stayed plastered to the chair, hoping against all odds they’d make it through. The ship rattled, shaking her to her very core. It was struggling, pushing its way up, trying to reach orbit.

They were slowing down, Krolia could feel it, but… but they weren’t weightless. Her stomach dropped, the vessel scraping the necessary altitude, grappling for the weightlessness they craved. She felt numb, looking back at the planet so far below them. The ship wouldn’t stay in orbit, its engines exhausted, its bulky exterior not designed for ascent.

Calmly, Krolia switched controls. The signs looked good for the escape pod. She activated the distress beacon, checking the readings one more time. They were dropping; they were going to lose the small window they had. Pressing fingers to her lips to silence the little cry, Krolia entered the escape sequence and flipped the lever, ejecting the escape pod. She didn’t feel it leave, but she could see the small trail it left as it shot upwards, escaping the pull of gravity that had engulfed the larger vessel. _Goodbye_. She watched it hurtle away into space, free of Beta Thetzi and the horrors it held. _Goodbye, Blue._

An alarm told her the ship was losing altitude. They hadn’t gained enough speed or distance to escape orbit, and without the extra push the escape pod had, they were re-entering. Krolia shut her eyes for a moment, just breathing. She thumbed the controls, but the engines were dead. She watched Lance’s pod drift further and further away, willing the others to find him in time. Then, gradually, as if they were leaving the buoyant support of an ocean behind, the ship began to fall.

Krolia didn’t cry. She didn’t beg for help she knew wouldn’t come, or rage against the useless controls. She just held them, pined to her seat by the force of the fall. They plummeted back towards the surface, miles of green rock rushing to meet her. It lasted forever, this fall. Maybe he’d be there, she thought numbly, as the atmosphere tore flaming chucks from the falling ship, threw them to the air currents that tore past. Maybe Akira would be there, like he’d been the first time, the moon at his back and an axe in hand. And he’d pull her from the wreckage like he’d done before, and they’d hobble out into the desert together, and… exist. That was all she wanted, sometimes. To exist in his presence. The rising sun could not compare to the flames that tore her ship apart. They fell, and they fell, and high in the void above, Lance drifted slowly to safety. Green dominated Krolia’s vision, and she shut her eyes. She wished it were red, she’d never minded crashing into the baking earth of a tarnished desert. Maybe there’d be a hand there for her, when she opened her eyes. Maybe she’d take it, let it pull her out from the smoking belly of this metallic craft. Maybe not, but maybe. Good things always began in the desert.

Krolia let her arms go slack, and in a blink, the impact came.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She thought she heard him, like dying people always think they do.

“ _Mom!"_

His voice tore through the darkness and it was _desperate._

“ _MOM!_ ”

Krolia wanted to smile, wanted to open her arms to him, to Keith. She’d tell him it was all okay, like she had when she held him as a tiny baby. _It’s okay, my darling, it’s okay_. But she couldn’t feel, she was nothing. There was just his voice, calling to her, searching for her, wrapping around her like a warm, warm blanket. _Mom._ It was an embrace, a sum of all, a means to an end. She could exist like this forever, just exist.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Krolia could hear children. If her last memory being that of her plummeting towards a barren planet wasn’t enough to make that strange, she hadn’t heard children playing since… since she couldn’t remember. She just didn’t see children that much at all.

She blinked her eyes open, hazy, confused. It felt like she’d been asleep. Krolia took a minute to adjust to her surroundings, trying to breath easy, feel her way into consciousness. There was a soft, spongy chair beneath her, its red and yellow floral print a shocking contrast to the black pants she wore. She was in a room, of sorts, a nice one. It was cosy, with its bookshelf and its worn carpet and the couch pushed against the wall. There were pictures hanging and propped up on the mantle piece, but Krolia’s head felt too dizzy to make them out.

Through a pair of glass doors, there were… trees? She couldn’t tell, her vision becoming blurred after a few feet, but the soft green hues indicated as much. And out there, somewhere, she could hear children playing. Why could she hear children? Krolia shifted, slowly pushing herself to sit up straight and-

She stared for a long, long time at her hands. Her hands… didn’t look like that. They didn’t look like- like this, with unfamiliar scars crossing the knuckles and… and wrinkles. Her hands had wrinkles. Not many, not as if she was withering and old, but… not like hers now. They were older. Her hands were older, somehow. Her breath caught, an uneasy feeling clawing up her throat; she needed to know where she was, she needed to get out-

“Hey, hey, mom, it’s alright.”

There was a voice, then a hand, covering her own. Krolia whipped to the side, gaze falling on the man crouched beside her chair. For a moment, her heart stopped, her eyes clouding with tears as she took in his searching eyes, and jet-black hair tied back in a bun, and then the scar that ran up from his jaw, not unlike hers.

“It’s okay, mom,” the man said, his hand patting hers very gently. “You just fell asleep. It’s okay.”

“Keith?”

Her voice didn’t sound like her own, broken and choppy and relieved, somehow. Keith smiled, eyes crinkling as he gazed at her fondly. It was him, she knew that, even though he looked older, broader and a little wiser, his kind face waiting for her to settle.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s me. I know you forget where you are sometimes, so… just think, for a minute. It’s okay.”

Krolia couldn’t speak. Her mouth hung open a little, the shrill laughter of children carrying in from outside. Keith was older, undeniably; he looked in his thirties, perhaps, still in fighting form, but… different. A good different.

“Where…”

And she knew. She knew. She’d seen this, this so called memory. It came to her once, during night, in the void, while Keith was asleep beside her. It flashed so briefly and violently through her mind she’d almost shoved it away entirely, because… because she couldn’t believe it. Krolia, or the Krolia of her future, smiled.

“I know,” she said.

Keith smiled back, relief dancing across his features.

“Knew you would,” he said softly.

Then he was moving, standing. The arm he’d been hiding came into view, and Krolia followed its contents longingly.

“Hold her for a minute? I’ve gotta check they aren’t killing each other out there.”

Krolia nodded, numb, yet unbearably warm at the same time. She opened her arms for the baby, tucked the small thing against her as Keith left his daughter with her and walked off towards the doors. Krolia gazed down at the child, captivated by her curious eyes. The baby chewed on her little fist, eyeing Krolia with interest. She couldn’t speak, struggled to breathe, just held the child as tightly as she dared, heart jumping at the small sounds the baby made. The doors were pulled open and Krolia knew what was coming next, knew it from the flash of this memory she’d near banished from her mind for fear it was a trick.

Krolia might’ve been crying, she couldn’t tell with the haze over her eyes anyway. The baby squirmed in her lap and her gaze followed Keith to where he stood outside, a small smile gracing his lips. He shook his head, watching whoever it was outside. His mouth opened, forming a word. She didn’t hear it, but she knew. She knew now, she finally understood. _Lance_ -

Krolia jolted upright with a pounding in her head, needles digging into her arms, and a menagerie of aches and pains through her body. She groaned, dizzy, slumping back against the pillow. She wasn’t in an armchair anymore, that was for damn sure. Krolia lay there for a second, propped up by the pillows, waiting for the world to stop spinning. When it felt like her head wasn’t going to topple from her shoulders anymore, she raised her hand, hovering it before her eyes.

There were no wrinkles. Krolia frowned, lowering her hand and very slowly sitting up, using the pillows for support. She blinked. The room she was in looked fairly like a generic medical ward, smaller, with white beds and curtains, medical implements, but soft, soft blue light filtering in from the wooden windows lining the room. It was… she sighed; it was peaceful. Krolia glanced around, the empty bed to her right and then… She stopped breathing.

Tanned skin, a crooked smile, and a heavily bandaged body. From the bed across from her, Lance smiled, also propped up against the pillows. There was a rectangular bandage plastered across his cheek, and more over his arms, but when he raised frail fingers and waved, Krolia knew he was fine. Tucked against his side and dead to the world, was Keith, his dark hair splayed out against the covers as he hugged Lance in his sleep. Lance’s fingers rest lightly against his partner’s back, rubbing over his spine as he slept, his other arm immobile and strapped to the bed, numerous tubes feeding into and out of him.

“Morning,” he said, his voice but a gentle whisper.

Krolia opened her mouth to reply, but all that came out was a squeak.

“Guess you got us off that planet,” Lance mumbled, a wobbly smile pulling at his lips. “Not my favourite tactic though, honestly.”

Krolia laughed, the sound punched from her.

“You…” she trailed off, voice failing her.

“Me,” Lance said, then chuckled. “I’m alright, so are you.”

A sigh, and he gestured minutely towards Keith.

“It’s this one we gotta worry about.”

Krolia’s gaze flitted down to her son; he looked fairly content as he was right now, snuggled up to Lance, fingers bunched in the fabric of his hospital gown.

“We don’t need to worry,” she murmured, flashes of that warm, warm memory scattered throughout her mind.

“Hm?”

“We’re going to be fine,” she said instead, to placate Lance.

He hummed softly, eyes drooping shut.

“I… I‘m actually really sleepy just… wanted to say hi, when you woke up, y’know? And… and thank you. Thank you.”

Krolia nodded.

“Sleep, Lance.”

She smiled at him, heart bleeding with fondness.

“I am so happy you are okay.”

Lance’s faint little hum was the only indication he’d heard her, before he was settling against the pillows, drifting off like the boy that clung to him. Krolia sighed as she watched them sleep, flexing her fingers against the blanket, wondering idly where they were. It wasn’t long after that Keith woke; Krolia’s eyes never strayed from him. He came to slowly, unrushed, snuggling closer into the warmth of Lance’s chest before gradually opening his eyes. He didn’t notice her at first, not when Lance was right there with him. Keith gazed up at him, quiet in his actions as he raised a hand and traced delicately along Lance’s jaw. He was so captivated, so in love, Krolia could feel it pouring off him.

He noticed her finally when he went to sit up. His eyes wandered across to her bed, to her, and he froze when he saw her staring back at him. In an instant, Keith was scrabbling off Lance’s bed and crossing the floor between them. He stumbled, hands planting into the mattress by her hip, breathing hard as he stared at her. In, out, in, out; he was trying to hold back tears, biting into his bottom lip but his eyes and his rapid breathing betrayed him.

“My son.”

Krolia held out her hand, and he came to her. That hand landed on his cheek, and he held onto it, as if fearing she might pull it away.

“Mom,” he mumbled, then he was wiping away tears.

She let him cry, managed to coax him into a hug, let him lay his head on her shoulder as he cried into her shirt.

“It’s alright,” she whispered.

He clung to her like he was a child again; though she supposed as a child, he’d never had the chance. She stroked his hair, held his head tenderly between her hands and spoke in soft whispers until he calmed down.

“I love you.”

Keith’s body tensed, then relaxed. He sniffled into her shoulder, clinging to her desperately.

“I love you so much, Keith.”

She held him until he drifted off again; he hadn’t slept much in the days they’d been missing. Krolia treasured each second her slept there, safe, in her arms, as the quiet lull of this planet encased them. When Lance woke again and found Keith asleep in her bed, he laughed until he disturbed his stitches, made a joke about Krolia stealing him and eventually she laughed at too. When the others finally came in, to offer them food and share their side of the story, Keith remained by her side. He never wandered too far, didn’t stray from her or Lance. And he’d be okay, they all would be, she _knew_.

\- 

Krolia returned to Earth twenty-two years, one month, two weeks, and a day after she left. They breached the atmosphere over a vast expanse of desert, five lions, nine people, and a wolf stashed in the hold. The Garrison met them, plans were made and adjusted; Keith went to Cuba, and she let him go. She intended to, at least, prepared to wait for him, until Lance dragged her along with them, as if it was never even a question.

When they returned, the three of them, Keith took her to the shack. He gave her time, time to walk through the barren house, trail her fingers over the familiar furniture, the dust on the windowsills, the nick in the door where she’d planted her knife. It felt as if it belonged to ghosts now. Not even Keith had lived here for many years; it was old, rusted, bent and broken. As she walked through she could still hear the whispers, moments and memories of a life she’d left. And she would never have it back, never; Krolia cried then, there on the living room floor, until her son came in and collected her, helped her outside with Lance’s aid to sit on the buckled floorboards of the deck, heaving air into her lungs.

They said she might forget things. The crash, her injuries; they warned her she might have problems. It explained why the memory from the void, the memory of their future, of Lance and Keith and her granddaughter, why it faded. But this, this shack and this desert and _him_ , Akira, they remained, planted in her mind like an ancient tree, buried too deep and spread too vast to be uprooted.

Keith took her to the graveyard. He sat with her for a long while, before Akira’s grave, kneeling in the short grass while Lance waited for them at a respectful distance. Krolia gazed over his name, a tightness in her chest and a sense of regret she would never live down.

“Do you want more time?”

Keith’s voice was patient, and kind. He’d been clutching her hand, or rather, she’d been clutching his, unwillingly holding tight to her son. Krolia sighed, deep and drawn out.

“Just a minute,” she said. “Maybe alone. I’ll meet you and Lance by the car?”

Keith nodded, squeezed her hand before letting go. She smiled, and he returned the gesture, before finally going to re-join Lance. Krolia shuffled a little, finding a new place to sit. It was evening here, and the sun was going down. Her fingers curled into the sand grass, and she smiled; _east_. Here they were, their favourite spot, her in the east, and him in the west. The sky was golden here, fire and heat, a reflection of the desert itself. Krolia gazed at the gravestone, at the streaks of dying sun that filtered in over and around it. She could see Lance and Keith walking hand in hand towards the car, slowly picking their way across the grounds. Their voices faded into the hum of insects, of twilight, and Krolia sat back.

_Due west_ ; the sun was going down now, melting into the horizon. She watched its golden flares erupt across the cold stone before her, blurring her vision and blurring the years of the past. She could see him now, almost, his inky hair alight in the dying sun. _I miss you_ ; she wished the words would come. They didn’t, of course; his time had passed, _their_ time had passed. Except for now, perhaps. With her in the east, and him in the west, and the red desert heat surrendering to the sinking sun. The light crept over the gravestone, and she could see him there in the windowsill, as brilliant as the sun itself. Maybe now, before she left this place today, she could look to the west, to the sun and to him, and let it set.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you!!!!!

**Author's Note:**

> kudos and comments are the mental equivalence of some really good soup I mean some really tasty soup when its all cold and rainy and shit like I'm talking stormy but you're all bundled up with your goddam good soup thats how those fuckers make me feel
> 
> feel free to say hi to me on [tumblr](https://jupiters-junipers.tumblr.com/)  
> I love getting messages so much


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